WB to fund road safety in three Indian states -Governance Now

WB to fund road safety in three Indian states

The World Bank project will cover 3,200 km of roads

Trithesh Nandan | November 15, 2010

The World Bank will fund road safety projects in three states - Assam, Gujarat and Karnataka.

The global public projects financer has said that provision of training, technology and support boosting road safety capacity in the states' public works departments will be covered by the funds.

Launched Monday, the project will fund a network of more than 3,000 km of strategic state and national highways through the World Bank's multi-donor Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), and the Bloomberg Philanthropies.

“The objective of this project is to assess the infrastructure safety of 45 sections of roads to be rehabilitated or improved within four World Bank financed projects that have a total loan amount of $1.875 billion,” a WB statement read.

“The project will involve inspection of 3,200 km roads in Assam, Gujarat and Karnataka and develop star ratings for the inspected roads,” Said Dahdah, transport specialist of the World Bank told a gathering at the launch.

“Assam, Gujarat and Karnataka are preparing projects to get funds approved by the World Bank,” Dahdah added.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) data of 2009 says that 290 people are killed on India’s roads every day. Now India has attained the dubious distinction of having the most number of road accident deaths in the world, replacing China.

Greg Smith, International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) Asia-Pacific regional director, said the project will use latest digital imaging technology on 3,200 km of roads in the three states.

"The inspections will help us identify affordable improvements that can dramatically reduce road death and injury,” Smith added.

The United Nations has launched the decade of 2011-2020 as the ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety’ which is an ambitious goal to road traffic fatalities in low and middle-income countries.

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