The government?s decision to raise the speed limit for transport and other vehicles from 60 kilometres per hour (kmph) to 70 kmph in general and over 100 kmph on expressways, has come under attack from experts. ?The government has endorsed the plan to increase the speed limit of the vehicles,? said a top ministry of roads and transport official. The ministry of roads and transport, in a meeting with state transport ministers earlier this week, had held a discussion on enhancing the speed limit. ?As per the internationally accepted principles, the speed limit inside the vicinity of the city cannot be more than 50 kmph.
If a car hits a pedestrian at the speed of 50 kmph, the chances of the victim?s death is 80%, while in the case of a car hitting a pedestrian at a speed of 30 kmph, the chances of death is only 10%,? said Dinesh Mohan, an IIT Delhi faculty. Mohan said the speed limit on the highways that are not separated should not be more than 80 kmph. However, the speed on limited access highways could be 90 kmph, he added.
SP Singh, senior fellow, Indian foundation of transport research and training, said just increasing the speed limit will not help. ?Except a few stretches here and there, both efficiency and safety have not yet been achieved. What we need to ensure is a seamless movement of these vehicles. For an uninterrupted movement of the vehicles, underpasses for local population should be constructed. There should be service roads for the local vehicles, and entry and exit on the highways should be earmarked,? he added.
Around 4.3 million carriages ply on the roads every day. Almost half of them ply on national highways moving almost 45% of the total cargo. ?However, despite the heavy investments made in the transport sector, the average distance a truck travels in the country, per day, is just 250 kms compared to 600 kms in China, and 700-800 kmpl in Brazil and Mexico,? Singh added.
The issue of increasing the speed limit also needs a closer scrutiny in the context of rising road accidents. Transport secretary Brahma Dutt said in a road safety workshop a month ago that India has the dubious distinction of becoming the top most killer on roads with the number of deaths rising to 1.05 lakh in 2007. The country tops the list, both in terms of the number of people killed, as well as the number of people killed per thousand.
A report by Dinesh Mohan pegged the social cost of such accidents at over Rs 55,000 crore in 2000, when there were around 45,000 killed on roads. With the figure crossing lakh, the cost is estimated to cross Rs1,50,000 crores last year.