Focus: GS 3: Infrastructure
Why in news?
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to undertake performance assessment and ranking of the highways in the country.
More about news?
The criteria for the assessment have been broadly categorised in three main heads:
- Highway Efficiency (45%)
- Highway Safety (35%)
- User Services (20%).
On the basis of outcome of the assessment, the authority will undertake a comprehensive analysis and decide on the level of intervention required to enhance the overall service quality.
Importance of Roadways in India:
- It provides better connectivity between Rural and Urban area and hence advancement of Rural India occurs.
- During the transportation of goods from ports to its destination it is very important to have better Road connectivity so that time, fuel and money can be saved and hence ultimate economic development occurs.
- To link every remotest areas( example : J&K, Northeast part, mountainous regions etc) of this country with the mainstream of economy it’s very much important to have better connectivity so that overall development of those people can be ensured.
- Even road connectivity is very much important in linking Intra-state Urban areas and Inter-states for better transportation of various goods and services and hence for overall development in terms of saving time, money etc and reduction in pollution and CO2 emission level.
How it can be further improved:
- Govt have launched one initiative known as Bharatmala programme which connects all major cities of this country
- Quality of roads in many parts of country is still pity so it needs better attention by respective state govt and local govt to improve the quality of roads
- Road pricing system is very much important as it provides as income for Govt and it can spend on constructing roads in much better way
- Due to traffic congestion in cities and many times on highways , pollution level rise. So increasing width of roads in India should be a priority
Road accidents in India
- According to data tabled by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways in the Parliament, Road accidents in India killed between 1.46 lakh and 1.5 lakh people every year between 2015 and 2017, which works out to a daily average of 400 or more deaths in each of the three years.
- According to WHO report, road accidents are the eighth leading cause of death for all age groups surpassing HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and diarrhoeal diseases.
