There has been a significant dip in the number of accidents after the roll out of the new Motor Vehicle Act, 2019, according to Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.

“There has been substantial improvement in road safety after the latest amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act were enforced. There are 5 lakh road accidents across the country that lead to 1.5 lakh deaths. This is the highest in the world,” Gadkari said.

He was speaking at the grand finale of the second edition of Transporters Meet, an event for the transporter sector organised by BusinessLine in association with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and Mahindra Small Commercial Vehicles.

“We should move to a situation where there is no need for insurers and we achieve zero accidents. In the last five months, Gujarat has registered a 14 per cent dip in accidents, Uttar Pradesh has reported a 13 per cent dip, Manipur 7 per cent, Jammu and Kashmir 15 per cent, Andhra Pradesh 6 per cent, Chandigarh 15 per cent, Chhattisgarh 5 per cent, Delhi 2 per cent, Haryana 1 per cent and Maharashtra 6 per cent dip,” he said.

“The roll out of FASTtags has quickened the transit time for trucks. The Centre will issue an advisory to the authorities concerned, noting that no truck should be held for more than an hour at a check-point,” he said.

Commenting on the cost logistics, Gadkari said, “Logistics constitutes 18 per cent of costs in India. This is around 12 per cent or lower in developed economies. There is a need to bridge this gap and bring down the logistics cost in the country.”

“There is a need for substantial reforms in the transport sector to achieve this target. This would require an improvement in the road network In the US, a truck can travel 650-800 km in a day. In India a truck travels hardly 225 km to 250 km in a day. This can be attributed to the condition of roads and the engineering of trucks,” he said.

“The ability to go longer distances will significantly bring down costs,” he added.

 

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