Government sets up National Road Safety Board, Nitin Gokarn to head it
NEW DELHI: After Supreme Court prodding, govt has finally set up the National Road Safety Board (NRSB) just a day before the SC deadline. Though originally the Board was supposed to have a full time chairman and members with more powers, most of the provisions have been diluted.TOI has learnt that the Board will be headed by Nitin Gokarn, a former UP cadre IAS, who had earlier served as joint secretary dealing with transport and road safety in the road transport ministry. The entity will have members, including govt officers.Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has approved names of Gokarn as chairman and six independent experts as members — Satyendra Garg, a former IPS officer, Assam transport commissioner Gaurav Upadhayay, Dr Gautham Melur Sukumar, professor of epidemiology at NIMHANS, K C Sharma (advisor in road transport ministry), Arushi Baluja of IRTE, Harsh Paddar, SP of Nagpur (rural) and Piyush Tiwari of Save Life Foundation.Initially, the ministry had proposed to appoint chairman and members through a search-cum-selection process, but it was later changed to nomination by govt.The ministry had notified the amended Rules on October 27, 2025 for setting up of the Board and the nomination of members.As per the Rules, the chairman will serve a three-year term and may be reappointed for one additional term of up to two years, subject to an upper age limit of 65 years. The chairman and members won’t receive salaries but will be entitled to allowances for attending meetings and for travel and accommodation. The Board will be tasked with promoting road safety awareness, developing a national road safety information system, improving road infrastructure safety and strengthening coordination between the Centre and states on road safety measures.The Board will meet at least once every three months, with a quorum of 50% of the members in position.
