The 15-days training program on Road Safety Audit by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITRoorkee) in association with Indian Roads Congress (IRC) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), from May 30, 2022 to June 13, 2022 concluded successfully. This was fourth such batch in past two years after it was launched. A MoU signed between IIT Roorkee, MoRTH and IRC for conducting such courses is to achieve the target of reducing road crashes to 50% by the year 2030.
The course curriculum for the 15-days training program included an extensive 7-days lecture sessions delivered by several renowned academicians, consultants, and practitioners like from SPA Delhi, CSIR-CRRI, IIT Roorkee, ICT New Delhi, iRAP, RITES Ltd., Save Life Foundation and Punjab Police, to name a few. It was then followed by physical site visits near Roorkee city and evaluation/examination of the participants. The valedictory session was held on June 13, 2022 in the Department of Civil Engineering of IIT Roorkee. The ceremony was graced by the presence of Prof. Manorajan Parida, Prof. Praveen Kumar; course coordinators and other senior professors.
The program is a part of the road safety initiative taken up by the Government of India to have a pool of well-trained road safety auditors in the country.
Road safety is an issue of paramount importance globally and is a matter of great concern for India in particular. According to the Road Accident Statistics published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), road accidents claimed more than 130,000 lives in India during 2020. While the major contributors of road traffic crashes can be primarily due to many reasons including driver’s error, over-speeding, drinking and driving, and the negligence of other drivers; but a significant proportion of road accidents may occur as the result of poorly designed roads. Poor road design can lead to life-threatening injuries and serious accidents with motor vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles and motorized two-wheelers. India is losing almost 3 % of its GDP in roads crashes. To eliminate such road crashes, one of the most effective methods is to audit a road project, right from its design stage till its opening to the traffic.
Sanjay Kumar Nirmal, said, “India, being one of the largest road networks in the world, the situation of road safety becomes even more alarming in our country. Among different vehicles involved in road accidents, two-wheelers accounted for the highest share in total accidents and fatalities in the year 2020, which needs immediate attention and suitable interventions at the grass-root level.”
Dr. P. K. Sikdar, President, Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Private Limited and the former director of CSIR-CRRI, highlighted,“The existing road safety issues in our country, importance of Road safety audit in the current situation and appealed to all the participants to take care of finer details of the design and construction to reduce the number of crashes.”
