India State Support Program for Road Safety: World Bank approves $250 mn loan for road safety

What is the News?

The World Bank has approved a $250 million loan to support the “India State Support Program for Road Safety”.

What is the “India State Support Program for Road Safety”?

Aim: 1) To help participating states reduce road crash fatalities and injuries through improved road safety management and institutional reform and results-based interventions on high-risk roads and 2) To strengthen emergency medical and rehabilitation services for post-crash care.

Financed by: World Bank

Coverage: The programme will be implemented in seven states namely: Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

How will the program help the states in reducing road accidents?

Under the program, the following steps will be taken: 

– A single accident reporting number will be set up to better manage post-crash events.

– A National Harmonized crash database system will be established in order to analyze accidents and use that to construct better and safer roads.

– The program will also fund network expansion of basic and advanced life support ambulances and training of first responder caregivers to road crash victims on the spot.

– Further, it will also provide incentives to the States to leverage private funding through Public-Private Partnership(PPP) concessions and pilot initiatives.

Road Accidents in India and their impact on the economy

According to government data, each year road accidents in India kill about 1,50,000 people and injure another 4,50,000. 

More than half of the victims are pedestrians, cyclists, or motorcyclists and almost 84% of all fatalities are among road users between the working ages of 18-60 years.

Poor households that account for over 70% of crash victims bear a higher proportion of the socio-economic burden of road crashes due to loss of income, high medical expenses and limited access to social safety nets.

According to a World Bank study, road crashes are estimated to cost the Indian economy between 5% to 7% of GDP a year. 

Source: The post is based on the article “World Bank approves $250 mn loan for road safety” published in The Hindu on 27th June 2022