The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is focusing on creating awareness about road safety as part of the Road Safety Week being observed from 11th to 17th January. The authority is giving a lot of emphasis on training NHAI engineers in Road Safety Audit to enhance engineering measures for improving safety on the roads.
The NHAI is imparting mandatory 15 days’ Road Safety Audit Training to its engineers. The completion of this training has been made a key criterion for promotions of engineers to posts of manager and deputy general manager.
During 2022-23, about 240 NHAI engineers have been trained at IIT Delhi, Central Road Research Institute and the Indian Academy of Highway Engineers.
Apart from this, the NHAI is prioritising the deployment of technology to make highways safer. Advance Traffic Management System (ATMS) is being implemented on National Highways and Expressways for managing incidents of road crashes and enforcement of speed limit and other regulations on highways.
The ATMS has been implemented for around 3,000 km of National Highways. Further, ATMS is also being installed on projects under implementation such as Delhi- Mumbai Expressway. NHAI is also looking at leveraging GIS technology for analyzing drone videos and Network Survey Vehicle data for identifying safety issues on highways.
To propagate the cause of safer roads for all, the Road Safety Week is being observed from 11th to 17th January. During the Week, various activities are being organised throughout the country to create awareness among the general public and to give an opportunity to all stakeholders to contribute to the cause of road safety.
These include various awareness campaigns related to causes of road accidents and measures to prevent them.