The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) today organised a Regional Manthan Conference to deliberate on strengthening road safety through e-Enforcement, integrated data systems, safer vehicles, improved emergency response and stronger district-level capacity for western states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Union Territory of Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu (DNH & DD) at Mumbai under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Justice A M Sapre [Retd.], Chairman Supreme Court  Committee on Road Safety. Shri Sanjay Bandyopadhyay Member SCCORS and Shri Mahmood Ahmed AS(T), MoRTH along with other senior officials also attended the conference. The following were deliberated in detail during conference: -

 

1. Zero Fatality District Initiative: Targeting Where It Matters Most

 

            Good intentions and good schemes must be directed with precision. The Zero Fatality District (ZFD) initiative is our strategic response to the question: where do we act first, and how do we act comprehensively? The ZFD model has been expanded nationally, with 100 critical districts identified across 15 states for focused, 360-degree intervention combining engineering, enforcement, emergency care, and education. These 100 districts together recorded with an average of 400+ fatalities per district annually. The ZFD framework, tailored to each district's specific crash profile, offers a proven strategy to achieve substantial fatality reduction.

 

B.        PM Rahat: No Victim Should Be Lost for Want of Care

 

            Research tells us that 50% of fatalities can be averted if the victim is admitted to hospital within the first one hour i.e., the Golden Hour. And yet, across our country, victims lie unattended, families scramble for cash, and hospitals hesitate to act without assurance of payment. The PM Rahat Scheme, is our definitive response to this tragedy.

 

            PM Rahat provides cashless treatment of up to Rs. 1.5 lakh for up to 7 days from the date of accident, covering all road accident victims irrespective of insurance status. What makes this scheme genuinely transformative is its technology backbone including the seamless integration of eDAR (MoRTH) with TMS 2.0 (NHA), the linkage with the 112 emergency helpline. For the first time, Transport, Health, and Police are working from the same data, in real time, toward the same outcome i.e., no victim is lost due to a delay in care.

 

C.        Rah-Veer: Honoring the Courage of the Good Samaritan

 

Even the best emergency care system cannot function if no one acts in those first critical moments at the scene of an accident. This is where the Rah-Veer scheme enters. Rah-Veer is the Government of India's formal recognition and reward for Good Samaritans i.e., individuals who, in the face of uncertainty and risk, choose to stop and save a life by rushing the accident victim to hospital within the Golden Hour.

 

            Every Rah-Veer who saves a life in a serious accident including one involving major surgery, brain or spinal cord injury, at least three days of hospitalization, or death during treatment, is entitled to a cash award of Rs. 25,000 per incident, accompanied by a Certificate of Appreciation. Critically, these Good Samaritans are also protected by law i.e., no Rah-Veer can be subjected to legal proceedings without their consent. Together, PM Rahat and Rah-Veer create a complete emergency care chain i.e., from the moment of accident to the moment of full recovery.

 

D.        Sadak Suraksha Mitra: Building a Community of Road Safety Champions

 

            Road accident statistics reveal that individuals in the age group of 18–45 years account for 66.1% of all fatalities, underscoring the urgent need to involve youth in road safety initiatives. With this objective, the Sadak Suraksha Mitra (SSM) Programme was launched as a youth-led road safety initiative jointly conceptualised by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports.

 

            The programme seeks to strengthen district-level road safety interventions by engaging trained youth volunteers through the MYBharat platform, with a special focus on the top 100 high-fatality districts across the country, where District Road Safety Committees (DRSCs) serve as the primary governance mechanism. These volunteers are not passive bystanders; they are structured road safety professionals, assuming defined roles as Crash Scene Coordinators, data collection for Road Safety Auditors, and Awareness & Engagement Leads. Each role contributes to a specific dimension of district-level road safety action, thereby creating a cadre of youth leaders dedicated to reducing fatalities and promoting safer roads.

 

E.        Data-Driven Hyperlocal Interventions: The Science Behind the Solution

 

            Knowing where accidents happen is only the first step. Acting on that knowledge systematically, at scale, and with the right tools is the harder challenge. The Data-Driven Hyperlocal Intervention (DDHI) framework, is built precisely for this purpose. DDHI empowers District Road Safety Committees (DRSCs) to move from intuition-based planning to evidence-based action.

 

            The DDHI roadmap follows a structured five-stage cycle: Alignment Meeting, Capacity Building, Interventions Planning, Implementation, and Impact Assessment. Each district begins with an alignment on programme objectives, moves through capacity building that deskills processes and upskills people, and proceeds to the identification and implementation of hyperlocal interventions suited to that district's unique crash profile.

            These five programmes are not just isolated efforts. They are interlocking pieces of a single, coherent road safety architecture. Community engagement through SSM feeds into district planning, data intelligence directs enforcement and engineering, Good Samaritans bridge the gap to emergency care and cashless treatment ensures that no Golden Hour is wasted. Hence, every State and district official were urged to take the insights of this workshop back to the field, and integrate these programmes into your road safety plans.

The Conference reaffirmed that reducing road fatalities requires coordinated action across technology, enforcement, vehicle safety, emergency care, crash investigation and institutional capacity.

States and districts were urged to translate these discussions into time-bound action on the ground, strengthening enforcement and road safety systems towards the goal of safer roads and Zero Fatality Districts.

At the end of the conference, it was agreed that States will due root cause analysis of road fatalities, prepare action plan to reduce road accidents and fatalities, prepare District Road Safety Plan to achieve India’s goal of reducing road fatalities by 50% by 2030.

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GDH/DS

(रिलीज़ आईडी: 2302920) आगंतुक पटल : 165