Mumbai, Dec 17 (IANS): The Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and IIT-Madras joined hands with MapmyIndia on Friday to enhance the road safety and driving features on free-to-use navigation App for India, officials said here.

In the presence of Union MoRTH Minister Nitin Gadkari, the three authorities signed an MoU for collaboration on driver and road safety technologies for the App that will be available to all Indians free.

With the tie-up, MapmyIndia app will provide voice and visual alerts about upcoming accident-hazard zones, speed breakers, sharp curves, potholes, accidents, etc., to enable them navigate carefully and to drive safely avoiding crashes.

Through the App, users and authorities shall be allowed to report and broadcast accidents, unsafe areas or road conditions and traffic issues to help benefit other users, which will further enhance road conditions in future after analysis.

The MapmyIndia, which won the Government of India's Aatmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge in 2020, additionally offers a myriad of mapping, navigation, safety and hyper-local features to help users in their day to day lives as they move around their city or across the country.

While citizens are encouraged to download the free App, all government departments at the centre, state and local levels are urged to report and broadcast information on accidents, bad traffic or poor road conditions, road works, etc., to alert users about potentially risky areas.

Founded in 1995, MapmyIndia provides advanced digital maps, geospatial software and location-based IoT technologies and won the Aatmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge-2020.