Posted on Jan 9, 2017

SIAM kick-starts Road Safety Week with ‘Walk for Safety’

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) in association with the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and Delhi Police organised the ‘Walk for safety’ to initiate the ‘Road Safety Week’ today here.

The event was flagged off by Sh. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Roads, Transport, Highways and Shipping. The event also saw participation from Sh. Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Minister for Civil Aviation, Sh. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Sh. Sanjay Mitra, Secretary, Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways and Sh. Alok Kumar, Commissioner of Police, Delhi.

The march started at the India Gate and concluded at Shastri Bhawan. The theme for the road safety week celebrations 2017 is ‘Your safety secures your family. Be cautious on roads’.

Talking about the initiative, Mr. K. K Gandhi, Executive Director, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), said,

SIAM is totally committed towards spreading the message of Road Safety amongst citizens. SIAM with full support from members will organise programs across the 4,200 automobile dealer networks all across the nation and will also organise various training workshops, competitions, walk for students, drivers and general masses with an objective of reducing fatalities on our roads. We are extremely thankful to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Delhi Police and others who have extended their support to us in making this ‘Walk for Safety’ a success.

Speaking at the event, Sh. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Roads, Transport, Highways and Shipping, said,

Every year five lakhs accidents take place on Indian roads and out of that 1.5 lakh people lose their lives. It is even more unfortunate that there is a 4.6 percent increase in the incidents of road accidents this year (2016) than the previous year. In order to make things better and make our roads safer, the government is working on multiple things including road engineering, road signage, create safe barriers and build cement concrete roads. The MoRTH has also launched a pilot project on Delhi- Jaipur highway to provide free-to-air information distribution system that use radio to make the travelling experience on National Highways safer, faster and hassle free.

During the Road Safety week, the Ministry of Road Transport, Highway and Shipping through National Informatics Centre (NIC) is also launching the following two android based mobile applications:

E-challan

A comprehensive digital solution for transport enforcement and Traffic Police, delivered through mobile applications and a web portal. It is an initiative to improve service access and transparency in the system.

M-Parivahan

A mobile based application which is meant for common citizen and transport operators who can access various transport related services. It provides unique feature of virtual Driving License and virtual Registration Certificate through back-end connectivity to Transport national Register, encrypted QR code and Adhaar-based authentication which will allow an option to replace the existing physical documents/cards with the secured, enforceable digital entities.

Commenting on road safety, Sh. Alok Kumar, Commissioner of Police, Delhi, said,

Supreme Court guidelines on the ‘Good Samaritan’ law have been accepted by government. Rules are being simplified and made helpful for people to encourage them to help the road accident victims. This move will enable people to help victims of road accidents. Road safety workshops are being held in different cities to create awareness about safety on roads and ‘Good Samaritans’

SIAM is also working with its members and dealers to organise several activities across the country to promote awareness on road safety.