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NEW DELHI: Nasik-Rural, Pune-Rural, Patna, Ahmednagar, Purba Medinipur, Solapur-Rural, Muzaffarpur, Belagavi, Kanpur and Bulandshahr are among the top in 100 districts in the country that have recorded a high number of road deaths, as per a presentation made at the recent state transporters meet in Delhi. The list has been prepared based on road deaths data of 2023 and 2024.The meeting was chaired by road transport minister Nitin Gadkari and 27 ministers from states participated in this. “A detailed study has been carried out to identify the districts that need special attention. There is a need for taking immediate and evidence-based measures to curb road deaths to achieve the goal of zero fatality. Interventions in Nagpur district has brought down fatalities by 22% last year compared to 2024, by 5% in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh and by 4% in Kamrup in Assam. These show that we can reduce road deaths by taking right measures,” Gadkari said.As per the details shared with state transport ministers and transport commissioners, the 100 districts across 15 states, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Telangana, recorded over 89,000 deaths in 2023 and 2024. It was found that 53% of the fatalities were reported in crashes between 3 pm and midnight. It also shows that 72% of deaths were due to read-end, head-on and pedestrian crashes.The ministry has also rolled out ‘Data Driven Hyperlocal Intervention (DDHI)’ to undertake measures to curb crashes and deaths across 100 districts, which includes over 30-odd that are part of the programme to achieve zero fatality.While launching the DDHI, road transport secretary V Umashankar had said that just policy decisions in Delhi can’t bring down the number of crashes and deaths. “Interventions have to be made at the district level. Expensive solutions are always not the best solutions,” he had said, highlighting the need for better analysis of the exact cause of crashes and required interventions.
