U.P Govt. Collaborates with Google Maps to Improve Road Safety

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government is in talks to collaborate with Google to launch a safer driving regime by integrating Google Maps with geographical locations in the state. Mr. Rajesh Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary Transport, on Friday announced that the state government has shared latitude and longitude with Google to identify blind spots and warn drivers of danger zone.

Speaking at the 22nd Annual Convention of Society for Automotive Fitness and Environment (SAFE), the Principal Secretary of the state said, "Wherever technology can be taken care of, we are trying to do it. For effective E-Challan, U.P has taken great initiative of fitment of high security registration plate because, lot many vehicles are plying with fake registration plate number and Challan is not being delivered at their exact address. In order to obviate this kind of difficulty, we are taking help of technology."

SAFE, an initiative of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) started in 1999, was launched with an intention to focus on safety, environment and sustainable mobility. This year, the convention led with the theme of "Environment & Road Safety: Enforcement and Compliance".

He also announced that the state government is integrating public health institutions to attend to road accidents victims within "golden hour" time. Along with this, he said that every college in U.P has road safety clubs, state transport department are devoting more time to ensure road safety.

As per the data shared by Mr. Singh, state of U.P registered 34,127 road accidents in the year 2020-21, with fatalities registering at 19,257 whereas injuries being recorded at 22,116.

Union Minister of Transport, Nitin Gadkari, in a statement to SIAM, said, "The government is working closely with all stakeholders including the automobile industry for faster integration and adoption imperatives of sustainable mobility which is safe and affordable through five Es, Education, Enforcement, Engineering, Environment, and Emergency Care. I hope that initiative like SAFE will mobilize a movement towards safer vehicles with a commitment towards adopting best global practices for automobile engineering in India to ultimately facilitate the goal of reducing atleast 50 personal road traffic death and injuries by 2025."

Mr. Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM, said that through such initiatives, the automobile body is acting as a catalyst in the sector to fulfil its commitment of greener and safer environment. The event saw participations of government representatives, OEMs, components manufacturers, NGOs, to share their perspective on themes such as road safety management, contribution of corporates and NGOs in protectingenvironment and road safety, and latest development in air quality improvement.

Speaking at the convention, Dr.Sudeshna Mitra, Transport Specialist,World Bank, said that road accidents are a silent pandemic which we are not realising. "India, in 2019, has reported 1.5 lakhs deaths each year and about 4.5 lakhs road crashes, now we see out of all these road crashes, fatalities and injuries, vulnerable road users are primarily pedestrians, cyclist, two-wheelers. They account almost 50 percent of all fatalities and injuries," Dr. Mitra said while noting to the fact that young and working age population are also predominantly affected by road accidents in the country.