Making Roads Safer in Indian Cities
Increasing the Safety of HazMat Vehicles and School Buses
We are proud to present the ‘Making Roads Safer in Indian Cities’ policy paper, meticulously prepared by FTI Consulting in collaboration with Intel. This comprehensive report is the result of two exclusive closed-door, multi-stakeholder consultations held on February 22, 2023, and March 2, 2023.
The primary objective of these consultations was to explore the adoption of cutting-edge road safety technology solutions in two critical sectors: school buses and commercial vehicles carrying hazardous materials (HazMat) across India.
Our policy paper is built upon valuable insights and active participation from esteemed organizations such as the Ministry of Road, Highways and Transport (MORTH), Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP), Indian Chemical Council (ICC), Intel, State Transport Corporations, the Automotive Industry, Technical Agencies, and Civil Society.
Furthermore, it draws extensively from the outcomes of the highly successful iRASTE pilot road safety project conducted in Nagpur and Telangana.
"Our Government is committed to reducing road accidents, fatalities and injuries. With this objective, the Ministry has undertaken multiple initiatives across all 4Es of Road Safety – Engineering, Enforcement, Education and Emergency care. Technology is playing an important role in road safety. Emerging technologies detect and mitigate causes of accidents in real time, including speeding, lane departure, driver drowsiness, and such technology is a key part of Ministry’s roadmap toward a sharp reduction in road accidents. It is great to see that industry and other stakeholders are working together with the government to implement technologies and systems to make India’s vehicles and roads safer for all citizens."
Shri Nitin Gadkari
Hon’ble Minister of Road Transport and Highways
Key highlights and recommendations from the Road Safety report include:
- Develop a roadmap for adopting road safety tech, starting with School Buses and Commercial Vehicles carrying Hazardous Materials (HazMat).
- Prioritize installation and retrofits of road safety devices on legacy vehicles as an affordable pathway to meet safety technology requirements.
- Define practical and cost-effective minimum safety levels for school buses, applicable to all schools, including those with limited resources.
- Emphasize driver upskilling and retraining for both vehicle categories, utilizing continuous monitoring and data-based training.
- Establish a specialized category of well-trained drivers for HazMat and School Buses, supported by AI-based advanced-driver assisted road safety technologies for continuous on-the-fly training.
