New Delhi, Mar 16 (IANS): Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is building over 1.47 lakh km of roads in the country.

"The NHAI is also building 22 green highways and by the end of 2024, we want to expand our road network matching with the US," Gadkari said.

Emphasising on the better road networks in the country, he said that road accidents in India are the highest in the world. He said, "Whenever I go to an international conference, India is referred to as the country with the largest number of accidents in the world. We need to change it with various measures like better designs and implementation."

Talking about the road accidents, he said that the people from the age group of 18-45 years comprise 65 per cent of the total accidents.

The NHAI has taken many steps to rectify the black spots where the accidents occur. He said the Regional Officers have been empowered with Rs 50 lakh financial sanction to amend the roads at black spots and even to take up reconstruction if the design is faulty.

Noting that road accidents have become a safety concern, he informed the House that with better design and construction, there has been a decrease in the road accidents substantially by 28.28 per cent.

He also said the compensation in case of the accidents on highways, has been increased and in case of death, the district collectors will give Rs two lakh to the deceased family within two days.

Gadkari also said that to rectify the accident spots in Tamil Nadu, the World Bank provided Rs 7,500 crore for this purpose. "Encouraged with the outcome in Tamil Nadu, we have decided to extend this across the entire road networks under the NHAI.