Agra: The Agra Development Foundation (ADF), a charitable trust has sent a demand letter to Union minister for road, transport and highways Nitin Gadkari for ranking of all 228 national highways of India to put a tab on accidents and improve overall road conditions. The citizens’ organization in the letter has suggested 14 facets to be considered in ranking of highways.ADF secretary KC Jain said, “We have the national target to reduce road accidents by 50% by 2020 and for that purpose, the national highways need to be made safer and better.”ADF in the letter has referred the Road Accidents in India – 2016 report which states that the number of the injured persons on NHs were 29.6% (i.e. 1,46,286) of the total persons 4,94,624 injured on all roads. Similarly, the number of the people who died on NHs were 34.5% (i.e. 52,075 persons) of the total 1,50,785.The letter states that India accounts for 12.5% of global road accidents, with one accident occurring every 4 minutes. Moreover, 65% of those killed are aged between 14 to 35 years.KC Jain said, “We have proposed to the road transport minster that the NHs should be assigned rankings, which would go a long way to make the NHs better and safer by creating greater consciousness about the safety aspect.”The letter mentions, “In several spheres like cleanliness of cities, maintenance of parks and smart cities, the system of ranking has brought objectivity in the assessment of the given sphere and has resulted in infusing a quality aspect therein.”The 14 facets suggested by ADF to be considered in annual ranking of all NHs include total number of accidents, level of its maintenance, availability of speed capturing cameras and other gadgets, total number of challans for speed violations and other offences, level of greenery along the concerned NH, traffic regulation on NH and its status, availability of ambulances and medical aid, status of compilation of data relating to the accidents, injuries and deaths on the NH and its uploading on official website, availability of rain water harvesting facility, status of signages, identification of black spots and the corrective road engineering efforts to rectify such flaws, availability of the relief centres, availability of truck bye-lanes and availability of public feedback with complaints and redressal system.

Stay updated with all the Agra Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.