Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said "no car will be built without airbag and trucks cabin will require mandatory air-conditioned fittings", which clearly points in the direction of making such safety features mandatory in cars manufactured and sold in India soon.
Car makers like Toyota, Maruti Suzuki, Volkswagen and others have already started providing safety features like ABS and airbags as part of standard equipment and there are many others following suit. Marking the start of the Road Safety Week with a 'Walkathon' from India Gate, Gadkari said the government has identified and started work on ten major accident black spots in Delhi and the government will spend Rs 11,000 crore over the next five years to improve the road infrastructure.
The ten black spots identified include Sarai Kale Khan, Kashmere Gate chowk (Morigate), Nigam Bodh Ghat, Mukundpur Chowk, Dr Bhahbha Marg crossing, Punjabi Bagh Chowk, ISBT Kashmere Gate, Mahipalpur Flyover, Shani Mandir and Shahdara Flyover.
Also Read: What You Need to Know About Airbags in Cars
Gadkari further said that India is among those countries that suffer a very high number of road accidents every year and even wars do not witness such a high number of casualties the nation is suffering due to this menace. Putting out figures he said that 5 lakh accidents take place in the country every year, of which 1.5 lakh people die and another 3 lakh are crippled for life.
He also mentioned that the government is committed to make National Highways accident-proof and has taken a number of steps to improve the situation including launch of a website where people can inform about such spots and improving the road engineering, construction of flyover and underpasses etc.
