Mumbai: The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) organised a Regional Manthan Conference in Mumbai to deliberate on strengthening road safety across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
The conference was held under the chairmanship of Justice A. M. Sapre (Retd.), Chairman, Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety. Shri Sanjay Bandyopadhyay, Member, SCCORS, Shri Mahmood Ahmed, Additional Secretary (Transport), MoRTH, and other senior officials also participated.
The discussions focused on e-Enforcement, integrated data systems, safer vehicles, emergency response and district-level road safety capacity. Officials reviewed several initiatives aimed at reducing road fatalities and strengthening coordinated action at the state and district levels.
Zero Fatality District Initiative
A major focus was the Zero Fatality District (ZFD) Initiative, which has identified 100 critical districts across 15 states for comprehensive interventions covering engineering, enforcement, emergency care and education. The initiative is designed around individual district crash profiles to enable targeted measures for reducing fatalities.
PM Rahat to Strengthen Emergency Care
The conference also highlighted PM Rahat, which provides cashless treatment of up to ₹1.5 lakh for up to seven days to road accident victims, irrespective of their insurance status.
The initiative integrates eDAR of MoRTH with TMS 2.0 of the National Health Authority and the 112 emergency helpline, bringing transport, health and police systems together to facilitate faster emergency response. The ministry noted the importance of treatment within the first hour, commonly referred to as the Golden Hour, in preventing avoidable deaths.
Rah-Veer Scheme for Good Samaritans
The Rah-Veer Scheme was discussed as an important component of the emergency response chain. Under the scheme, Good Samaritans who save lives by taking serious road accident victims to hospitals during the Golden Hour can receive a ₹25,000 cash award per incident along with a Certificate of Appreciation.
The initiative also provides legal protection to Good Samaritans, who cannot be subjected to legal proceedings without their consent.
Youth Participation Through Sadak Suraksha Mitra
The Sadak Suraksha Mitra (SSM) Programme, jointly conceptualised by MoRTH and the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, aims to involve trained youth volunteers in district-level road safety efforts.
The programme focuses particularly on the top 100 high-fatality districts. Volunteers engaged through the MYBharat platform can support activities including crash scene coordination, road safety data collection and public awareness and engagement.
Data-Driven Hyperlocal Interventions
The conference also examined the Data-Driven Hyperlocal Intervention (DDHI) framework, which seeks to help District Road Safety Committees shift from intuition-based planning to evidence-based interventions.
The framework follows five stages: alignment meeting, capacity building, intervention planning, implementation and impact assessment. These steps are intended to help districts identify and address crash risks based on their specific local conditions.
The ministry emphasised that the various programmes form an integrated road safety architecture, linking community participation, data intelligence, enforcement, engineering, emergency response and cashless treatment.
At the conclusion of the conference, states were urged to conduct root-cause analyses of road fatalities, prepare action plans to reduce accidents and fatalities, and develop District Road Safety Plans. The efforts are aligned with India’s goal of reducing road fatalities by 50% by 2030 and advancing the objective of Zero Fatality Districts.
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