Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Roorkee - Roorkee

Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITRoorkee), organized the fourth 15-day training programme on Road Safety Audit from May 30, 2022, to June 13, 2022, in association with the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).

The programme is a part of the road safety initiative taken up by the Government of India to have a pool of well-trained road safety auditors in the country. Road safety is an issue of paramount importance globally and is a matter of great concern for India in particular.

WHAT CAUSES ROAD ACCIDENTS

According to the Road Accident Statistics published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), road accidents claimed more than 130,000 lives in India in 2020.

While the major contributors to road traffic crashes can be primarily due to many reasons including driver errors, over-speeding, drinking and driving, and the negligence of other drivers, a significant proportion of road accidents may occur as the result of poorly designed roads.

Poor road design can lead to life-threatening injuries and serious accidents with motor vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles and motorized two-wheelers. India is losing almost 3 % of its GDP to road crashes. To eliminate such road crashes, one of the most effective methods is to audit a road project, right from its design stage till its opening to the traffic.

The event was inaugurated and graced with the online presence of Sanjay Kumar Nirmal, Secretary-General, IRC and Additional Director General (ADG), MoRTH.

An MoU has been signed between IIT Roorkee, MoRTH, and IRC for conducting three courses to achieve the target of reducing road crashes to 50% by the year 2030.

“India is one of the largest road networks in the world, the situation of road safety becomes even more alarming in our country. Among different vehicles involved in road accidents, two-wheelers accounted for the highest share in total accidents and fatalities in the year 2020, which needs immediate attention and suitable interventions at the grass-root level,” said Sanjay Kumar Nirmal.

Dr. P. K. Sikdar, President, Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Private Limited and the former director of CSIR-CRRI, highlighted, “The existing road safety issues in our country, the importance of road safety audit in the current situation and appealed to all the participants to take care of finer details of the design and construction to reduce the number of crashes.”

IIT ROORKEE ROAD SAFETY AUDIT CURRICULUM

The course curriculum for the 15-day training programme included extensive 7-day lecture sessions delivered by several renowned academicians, consultants, and practitioners like SPA Delhi, CSIR-CRRI, IIT Roorkee, ICT New Delhi, iRAP, RITES Ltd., Save Life Foundation and Punjab Police, to name a few.

It was then followed by physical site visits near Roorkee city and evaluation/examination of the participants. The valedictory session was held on June 13, 2022, in the Department of Civil Engineering of IIT Roorkee.

The ceremony was graced by the presence of Prof. Manorajan Parida, Prof. Praveen Kumar; course coordinators, and other senior professors.

While considering the earlier road safety courses that were organized by IIT Roorkee in the year 2021,Prof. Manoranjan Parida, Deputy Director, IIT Roorkee, said, “The need for having more such programmes for creating road safety auditors in joint association with IRC and MoRTH on this course will further escalate the participation in the next course and we shall reach bigger heights and make our roads safer.”