India

Country Summary

India is one of the most densely populated nations in the world; its roads are often choked with traffic and has become increasingly perilous. For this reason, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) hosted a high-level national gathering of road safety experts and Indian industry officials in 2010 aimed at creating consensus, fostering cooperation and building up multi-sector partnership-based programmes.

The 2010 conclave brought together more than 250 participants from the Government of India, non-governmental originations, the road industry, consulting firms, and private-road developers, to share initiatives and exchange a wealth of ideas to improve road safety in India. Because road safety was indentified as a multi-disciplinary problem, the conclave also helped develop interest and support for the India Road Safety Partnership, and the scaling up of fleet safety efforts in the commercial sector.

Fleet safety in the private sector

One area where they can draw inspiration is from Bangalore, where leading corporations are taking the initiative to promote safety in the commercial sector. Because roughly 60-70 per cent of road crashes in India are related to commercial vehicles, improving fleet safety management can contribute significantly to overall road safety. In Bangalore’s information technology sector, there has been a demand for safety improvement. The two key projects, known as People Moving People and People Moving Goods, are collaborative efforts among GRSP members in Bangalore, and serve as a working laboratory for sharing and developing best practices.

 

People Moving People

First launched in May 2009 during the Anniversary Day function of the Confederation of Indian Industries Institute of Quality (CII IQ) in Bangalore, People Moving People is described as a "programme for the adoption of a voluntary standard for road safety within the transportation sector." The programme is part of a larger safe-fleets initiative created by Shell, GRSP, TNT and C-II IQ, which hosts the initiative and acts as secretariat. Led by Shell, the People Moving People (PMP) programme is based on Shell's Road Transport Health Safety and Environment (HSE) System.

People Moving Goods

People Moving Goods is being led by Mr. Dhananjay Parkhe Director CSR, Security & Public Affairs for TNT India. The comprehensive safe-fleets programme is intended to build road safety management capability in industry and large transport contractors. GRSP member TNT is taking a leading role, extending training and assessment to subcontractors. The safe-fleet programmes have 5 elements: drivers, vehicles, journey, contractor, and health and safety. Personnel involved will be trained on all the elements of key standards in order to implement the programmes in their respective organisations. Audits will be carried out on the effectiveness of implementation, and organisations will be certified based on the findings.

Road safety is multi disciplinary problem and it therefore requires a coherent and integrated approach, bringing together the efforts of all stakeholders.

– Mr. A V Sinha, Director General (Roads), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways