Haryana is the first state in India to adopt a Vision Zero approach to road safety, which prioritises human life above all else. This will contribute to India’s commitment as part of the Brazillia Declaration which intends towards reducing road traffic deaths by 50% by 2020.
Haryana Vision Zero is a campaign aimed at reducing road traffic deaths in the state. A programme where the PPP collaboration model shines with the state government leading from the front and companies like Nagarro and Honda supporting the programme through their CSR. The programme comprises of four key areas of work – engineering, enforcement, education and emergency. It brings into focus the components of engineering and enforcement to piece together the overall road safety strategy.
In order to achieve Vision Zero, NASSCOM Foundation and non-profit WRI (World Resources Institute) India have developed a road safety action plan for the state of Haryana. In addition, each district of Haryana now has a road safety associate to help with crash/accident investigations, pointing out black spots that could have caused the accidents, reporting back to the government with recommendations and ensuring corrective measures.
As part of “engineering”, 4160 km of road inspection was undertaken, 760 road crashes were investigated and 78 black spots were audited. As many as 310 zero-tolerance drives were observed, automatic e-challaning was introduced, an increase of about 80% was achieved in challans for over speeding, and CCTV cameras were installed in three districts.
More that 500 road safety awareness campaigns conducted. Apart from this, a `Raahgiri Day’ was observed in all the districts to raise awareness around pedestrians and cyclists. The project saw the implementation of the recommendation for setting up traffic assistance booths on three major national highways passing through the state – namely NH1, NH2 and NH10.
Says Sarika Panda Bhatt from WRI, “Haryana Vision Zero may have just figured out a structure of getting things implemented on ground and is bound to be a game changer for the country, as India cannot afford to lose any more lives in road accidents.”
