Addresses Key Issues Of Citizen Welfare and Growing Focus on Transport Infrastructure in India
Mumbai, June 17, 2015: The necessity of a focused approach that benefits the citizens of India while the government strengthens the economic and infrastructure development is vital and addressing these key issues was the ‘The Economic Times Road Safety Summit 2015’ held at Courtyard Mariott, Mumbai. ET Edge, an Economic Times Initiative, founded to empower multiple industries and segments through the dispersion of critical business knowledge through strategically developed conferences and summits, hosted various panel discussions that focused on topics such as:
- Innovation for Safe Engineering & Safe Infrastructure
- Unleashing the Potential of technology and implementation of ITS system in India
- Safe roads Safe India – outlook, opportunities & the way ahead
In the current scenario, safety related issues have emerged with the growing incidents of road accidents and fatalities. Statistics state that in India, annually over 6 lacs accidents lead to about 2 lac deaths of the citizens, this colossal loss calls for concerted and multidisciplinary preventive and remedial efforts.
While it’s a known fact that the global infrastructure is the life blood of prosperity and economic development of various nations. The infrastructure planners of India have rightly integrated the transport system that will increase connectivity across the nation and improve mobility while reviving the road safety laws by making them more stringent along with the strong set up of the National Road Safety Policy that covers the preventive and post-accident aspects of traffic safety measures.
Speaking on the occasion, Deepak Lamba, President, Times Conferences Limited, said, “Though we are marching towards urbanization and modernization of our infrastructure facilities we are still unable to curb road accidents and fatalities. In the last decade we have seen a rise in the number of road accidents, resulting in an average mortality rate of 1,00,000 per annum. Keeping in mind the citizens’ safety and understanding the need to reduce road accidents our aim is to highlight a movement that achieves vehicle management system and helps preserve road infrastructure and improve road safety.”
The summit was held with an aim to cast a spotlight on innovative policies, practices and solutions for a better transport management system, the road safety bills and amendment, etc. Important aspects of road safety was discussed at the summit. The eminent speakers expressed their views on key panel discussions, such as Dr Kamaljeet Soi, International Road Safety Expert said, “A vehicular accident occurs every second minute causing a death every third minute there is a death. India has 1% of the world’s vehicles, but 11% of the total global RTA deaths. Economic loss amounts to Rs. 1, 50000 crores (One lakh fifty thousand crores) an amount that is little less than our defense budget.”
Commenting on modernising infrastructure for road safety, Sonia Sethi, Transport Commissioner, Motor Vehicle Department said, “On an average we register almost 2 lakh vehicles and issue almost the same number of licenses each year in Maharashtra. Thus, we have taken up two very ambitious programs that brings in more objective, scientific interventions directly related to drivers and vehicles. We want to make Maharashtra the first state to have a fully computerized driving test, making the system as stringent and scientific as possible. Moreover, our analysis of vehicular fitness will also now be done scientifically, a system in which a mechanized function will oversee this study of fitness.”
The summit centered on the theme “Safe Systems – Safe Road – Safe Citizen” was attended by eminent speakers like Dr Kamaljeet Soi (International Road Safety Expert), Dinesh Parab (Head-HSE, Reliance Infrastructure), Ashutosh Atray (Principal Trustee, RoadSafe Foundation), Rashmi Urdhwaresh (Director, ARAI), Dr. C.S.R.K. Prasad (Professor , Civil Engineering, NIT, Warangal), Gopal R. Patil (Associate Professor, Transportation Systems Engineering, IIT Bombay) Sonia Sethi (Transport Commissioner, Motor Vehicle Department), M M Kulkarni (Director, National Safety Council India), M. Ramchandani (JMD, MSRDC) & Dr. Satish Dharap (Vice President- Trauma Association of India).
This interactive summit was attended by 150 + senior level decision makers (Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer, Principal Chief Engineers, Safety Heads, Traffic Management Head, Traffic Safety Head, Chief Engineer, Superintendent Engineer, Commissioner of Police (Traffic Department) etc.) from Public Sector, Road Safety Department, Transportation Department and Infrastructure space in India. Thus making the Road Safety summit an ideal platform to learn and share knowledge with industry experts.
The Economic Times Road Safety Summit was organized in association with; TATA Motors – Automobile Partner, New India Assurance – General Insurance Partner, Indian Oil Servo – Associate Partner, mep – Infrastructure Partner, UL -Knowledge Partner and MAAC – Animation Partner.
About ET Edge: Times Conferences Ltd., functional under the brand name ET Edge, is an Economic Times subsidiary founded to empower multiple industries and segments by sharing critical business knowledge through strategic conferences and summits. Encompassing the Indian business vista, ET Edge strives to bring together visionaries and key leaders on its knowledge platforms to create social and business ecology conducive to the positive changes required by the industry. The main aim of this initiative is to channel global business intelligence through summits and conferences in overarching lectures, hands-on workshops, panels, roundtables and case studies. The forums would ensure that senior decision makers are equipped with information to respond to challenges they face not just in India but also globally.