Kolkata, 28th July 2023: The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) organised a conference on Road Safety at The Park Hotel in the city on Thursday, 27th July 2023. The conference focused on the role of industry for safe roads and safe mobility, and had panel discussions on the roadmap for safer mobility and enhancing the road safety ecosystem in India. The conference was attended by many respected dignitaries like H K Kusumakar, IPS Special Commissioner of Police, Kolkata; Dr Krishna Nirmalya Sen, Chairman - ICC OHSE Expert Committee & Head EHS, L&T MMH; Saket Mehra National Leader, Automotive Practice, Grant Thornton Bharat and Sudipta Mukherjee Chief Adviser-Generation, CESC Ltd.
While delivering the welcome address, Dr Krishna Nirmalya Sen Chairman – ICC OHSE Expert Committee & Head EHS, L&T MMH, said, “Road safety and mobility are critical issues that affect millions of people in India. Everyday, with a growing population, urbanisation and increased traffic, ensuring road safety and mobility has become a challenge for the Indian government. According to the ministry of transport and highways, more than 5 lakh people are killed in road accidents. Most crashes occur as a result of carelessness, and lack of road safety knowledge on the part of the driver. The role of industry in road safety is paramount. Public transport should have emergency features. Regular maintenance is also required. Many industries have the power to influence public behaviour to increase road safety and mobility. The automobile industry can also participate in road safety campaigns through CSR to raise awareness about road safety and industries can also contribute by investing in research and development. Today, start-ups are also playing a very vital role. However, there is more need for startups in our countries.”
While delivering the theme address, Saket Mehra, National Leader, Automotive Practice, Grant Thornton Bharat, said, “Three things that should truly contribute to achieve road safety is technology, data and analytics, and driver behaviour. Multiple states in India have partnered with different companies using advanced analytics to predict and reduce accident rates and there have been some success stories but a lot more to go. Today, roads are much safer. Our vehicles are secured and there is increased awareness about the issue. However, youngsters still feel unsafe on the roads. This is owing to a larger human element. The driving patterns have changed, maybe due to pent-up issues of anger and frustration. Between 2019 and 2021 there has been a 40% hike in road rage incidents across the country. The fatality rate is significantly higher compared to other countries. Various aspects need to be addressed in improving road safety. It is not only about driving behaviour and infrastructure. It is also about the public transportation system. I feel proud that Kolkata has the most iconic transportation system in India, where people feel safe. Corporates can also help to tackle the issue by designing and developing programmes that make people aware of driving patterns and behaviours as part of ESG.”
H K Kusumakar, IPS, Special Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, said, “It is true that we are one of the most important stakeholders for road safety and everything related to that. Data shows that when the roads are getting better, fatalities are also going up and this is a big problem because we cannot stop building roads because the fatalities are increasing. We should figure out a way of improving both the roads and decrease in fatalities. Kolkata is one of the safest cities as per NCRB data on road safety. It has 7% road space compared to 25% as per UN norms. But our fatality rate and average vehicle speed is much better than other metros. The sense of compliance with the law in Kolkata is much better than in other cities. However, drunken driving is a huge issue for us. During the night, when there are less cops present on the road, it is a natural tendency to jump the red light and because of this a lot of accidents occur. The best possible way to comply is to show people a few videos of the accidents that happen during the night. In majority of cases, the offender rarely gets killed, which is the worst part. Hence, we have increased our focus on drunken driving at night. According to data compared between 2016 and 2022, we have slumped from 500 to below 200 fatalities on the road. We have invested a lot of effort in technology like CCTV cameras, challan system, etc. We confirm the offense manually first and then we send the challan to the vehicle owners. Kolkata is the only city using the SCADA-based system for handling traffic signals. We are also focusing on research and development. We are working with IIT Kharagpur on this matter. Awareness is key for road safety. So, it is important for our citizens to comply with the laws.”
Delivering the Vote of Thanks, Sudipta Mukherjee, Chief Adviser-Generation, CESC Ltd , iterated, “Statistic show that around 1.5 lakh people in India die every year. The irony is that 70% of these faculties are in the age group of 17 to 60. A lot of emphasis has been put on road safety programmes in the country. And these kinds of sessions are very important today. Road infrastructure and transportation combined are considered key parameters for the development of a country. In the last 10 years, these aspects have been developed in many ways. Currently, India has 62 lakh kilometres of road. However, private vehicle owners tamper with speed governors to throttle on the national or state highways. We ought to put more focus on road safety from the standpoint of industries, governments, authorities and agencies like Indian Chambers of Commerce and others. Secondly, if we analyse the causes of accidents, 80% comes from drivers. Moreover, 65% of the material is transported through roadways. Dhaba’s and eateries do not follow any rules and dump materials in the roadways, which distract drivers. Industries transport 90% raw materials through the roadways. Hence, technologies can be installed in vehicles at a lower cost, which can better manage vehicles and ensure safety. This session enriched us and provided key insights about road safety. The suggestions will undoubtedly guide our stakeholders. As Indian Chamber of Commerce we have a vital role to play in the effort by ensuring more collaborations and safety campaigns to reach a wider community. Industry bodies should initiate and sponsor road safety and mobility campaigns. Lastly, road safety is a shared responsibility and by working together we can achieve our goals.”
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