By Navneet Mishra
New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS): The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is working on a scheme wherein immediate treatment will be ensured to those injured in accidents on national highways across the country.
The Ministry is planning to come up with an improved mechanism that will immediately inform the police and ambulance services in case of accident. Arrangement of an ambulance equipped with Global Positioning System to ferry victims to nearest hospital will be ensured.
Similarly, the Ministry is also working on several new schemes to prevent road accidents, in tandem with engineering institutes like Indian Institutes of Technology and National Institutes of Technology across the country.
Giridhar Aramane, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, said that work is underway for an emergency response mechanism for road safety. "Immediate treatment will be possible for those injured in road accidents if the police, ambulances and hospitals are connected through a single network. It will also help in relief and rescue work."
The Ministry is working on real-time information exchange as well as cashless treatment of the injured, he said, adding that talks are underway with the Health Ministry in this regard.
According to the official data, after the strict implementation of the Motor Vehicle Act in September 2019, a significant decline of over 3.86 per cent has been noticed in the number of accidents across the country. In 2019, a total of 4,49,002 road accidents took place in which 1,51,113 people lost their lives.
The Ministry believes that apart from other measures, fear of hefty fines deterred people to violate traffic rules. However, India is still among the countries where the road accidents are high.
Currently, the Ministry is working on the Integrated Road Accident Project with the help of the World Bank.
According to the Ministry officials, the cashless treatment scheme will greatly benefit the affected families. Sources said that after the launch of the scheme, treatment of up to Rs 2.5 lakh will be free for accident victims.