Medilytix Bureau : Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that efforts are being made to improve road engineering, automobile manufacturing, and emergency services, and cooperation of all stakeholders is necessary to improve road safety. The government is also planning to conduct a road safety audit in order to improve the quality of roads and reduce accidents, the minister of road transport and highways said.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the AIMA National Management Convention, the minister also described the death earlier this month of former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry as “very unfortunate” and “shocking.”
On road safety, he said, the education and cooperation of people is very important and various initiatives through campaigns and advertisements are being taken to improve the safety of people on the road.
“Road safety is the highest agenda for all of us,” Gadkari said.
The minister also said that on September 28 he will kick off a trial project involving Toyota’s new car that will be powered by flex-fuel.
The minister said that “that day is not far when the cars will run 100 percent on ethanol instead of petrol,” the minister said, adding that as a result, pollution will be reduced, import bills will come down, and, ultimately, the farmers will be benefitted.
Mistry, 54, was killed in a car crash in Maharashtra’s Palghar district near Mumbai on September 4 when his luxury car hit a road divider.
Mistry, an Irish citizen and scion of the real estate behemoth Shapoorji Pallonji Group, was travelling from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.