New Delhi: The World Bank on Monday approved a $250 million loan for the Indian government’s Road Safety Program to address the high road accident mortality rate in the country.
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) Variable Spread Loan has a maturity period of 18 years, which includes a grace period of 5.5 years.
The program aims to help participating states reduce road accident deaths and injuries through better road safety management and institutional reform and outcome-based interventions on high-risk roads. It will also strengthen emergency medical and rehabilitation services for post-accident care, the multilateral body said in a release.
With only 1% of the world’s vehicles, India accounts for about 10% of all accident-related deaths. Poor households bear a high proportion of the socio-economic burden of road accidents due to loss of income (over 70 percent of accident victims in poor families), high medical expenses and limited access to the social safety net.
According to a World Bank study, road accidents are estimated to cost the Indian economy between 5% and 7% of GDP annually.
Official government figures show that about 150,000 people are killed and 450,000 are injured in road accidents in India every year. More than half of the victims are pedestrians, cyclists or motorcyclists and about 84% of all deaths are among road users between the working age of 18-60 years.
Hideki Mori, Acting Country Director, World Bank India said that the World Bank’s India Road Safety Project is the endeavor of the Government of India to reduce the incidence of road accidents by creating and strengthening efficient institutional mechanisms for enforcement of safe roads, vehicles and vehicles in the country. will support. Efforts are being made to provide better treatment on the spot to the victims of road accidents. “This will help reduce the impact of road accidents, especially on the poor and the economy and human capital,” Mori said.
The India State Assistance Program for Road Safety, funded by the World Bank, will be implemented in the states of Andhra Pradesh (AP), Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
The project will focus on strengthening and streamlining the management capacity of key agencies for road safety in these states. To reduce the incidence of road accidents, the project will establish a national harmonized crash database system, which will be analyzed to build better and safer roads, the release said.
The project will also provide incentives to states to take advantage of private funding through public private partnership concessions and pilot initiatives.