The next time you see an accident on the highways, don?t panic. For help is at hand. The rising number of fatal accidents on the national highways has forced the ministry of road transport & highways to facilitate quick medical services for highway users. The ministry is planning to set up a call centre which will act as a medium between medical authorities and highway users.
Highways users can inform the call centre about any accident and even register their complaints about the construction and maintenance of the roads.
The ministry, acting through the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), has set a stringent bidding process for the selection of the call centre operator. According to the NHAI bidding document, a company should have the experience of running call centres for at least three consecutive years preceding the bidding year. The bidder should also have an average turnover of minimum Rs 100 crore during the three financial years and Rs 25 crore of its revenue should be from call centre operations, the request for proposal document states. The company should be a registered one having at least 2,500 employees to bid for the process, the last date for which is May 6. Initially, the around-the-clock call centre will have a capacity of 50 seats.
?The call centre will enable us know about accidents and facilitate timely ambulance services. The users can also lodge grievances on the construction and maintenance of roads,? a senior official in NHAI told FE.
According to latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau, over 1.14 lakh people lost their lives on the national highways in 2007, against 1.05 lakh in 2006. Major victims of fatal road accidents were two-wheelers, pedestrians and cyclists, with their share raging between 29.5% and 40.2% during 2004-2007.
The government has already approved a draft Bill to set up the National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board for improving safety provisions on the national highways. The Bill is likely to be introduced in Parliament in its current session. The Centre has also decided to create a National Road Safety Fund to give the board financial freedom to carry out its functions.