The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) organized a Regional Manthan Conference on Road Safety in Mumbai for western states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, and the Union Territory of Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu. The conference was chaired by Justice A M Sapre (Retd.), Chairman of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety, with participation from Shri Sanjay Bandyopadhyay, Member SCCORS, and Shri Mahmood Ahmed, AS(T), MoRTH, along with other senior officials.
Five key road safety initiatives were detailed during the conference. The Zero Fatality District (ZFD) initiative targets 100 critical districts across 15 states that collectively record an average of 400+ fatalities per district annually. This framework provides tailored, comprehensive interventions combining engineering, enforcement, emergency care, and education specific to each district's crash profile.
The PM Rahat Scheme provides cashless treatment of up to ₹1.5 lakh for up to 7 days from the date of accident for all road accident victims, irrespective of insurance status. The scheme features a technology backbone integrating eDAR (MoRTH) with TMS 2.0 (NHA) and links with the 112 emergency helpline, enabling real-time data sharing between Transport, Health, and Police departments to ensure no victim is lost due to delay in care during the critical Golden Hour period when 50% of fatalities can be averted.
The Rah-Veer scheme offers formal recognition and reward for Good Samaritans who help accident victims within the Golden Hour. Each Rah-Veer who saves a life in a serious accident involving major surgery, brain or spinal cord injury, at least three days of hospitalization, or death during treatment receives a cash award of ₹25,000 per incident along with a Certificate of Appreciation. The scheme provides legal protection ensuring no Rah-Veer can be subjected to legal proceedings without their consent.
The Sadak Suraksha Mitra (SSM) Programme is a youth-led road safety initiative jointly conceptualized by MoRTH and the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. It engages trained youth volunteers through the MYBharat platform, focusing particularly on the top 100 high-fatality districts. These volunteers assume defined roles as Crash Scene Coordinators, data collection for Road Safety Auditors, and Awareness & Engagement Leads, targeting the 18-45 age group that accounts for 66.1% of all road fatalities.
The Data-Driven Hyperlocal Intervention (DDHI) framework empowers District Road Safety Committees to move from intuition-based to evidence-based action through a structured five-stage cycle: Alignment Meeting, Capacity Building, Interventions Planning, Implementation, and Impact Assessment. This enables districts to implement hyperlocal interventions suited to their unique crash profiles.
The conference concluded with states agreeing to conduct root cause analysis of road fatalities, prepare action plans to reduce accidents, and develop District Road Safety Plans to achieve India's goal of reducing road fatalities by 50% by 2030.