India is set to revamp its highway norms to have better designed and better managed roads henceforth. The Indian Highway Capacity Manual (INDO-HCM), recommended by the 12th five-year plan, was adopted by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) today.
"Highways are crucial for country's development. So it is also crucial to have safer highways," said Nitin Gadkari, Union minister for MoRTH and Ganga Rejuvenation, while releasing the INDO-HCM manual on Monday.
This document, would be the key in setting standards of highways constructed everywhere in the country. It was adopted by India primarily to curtail road related deaths. India has among the highest road-related casualties in the world at 147,000 deaths every year.
An assessment by the Transport Research Wing under the MoRTH, assessed that deaths and deformities caused by 4.5 lakh road accidents every year, leads to an economic loss of about 5.2 per cent of India's GDP.
"Road engineering and road designing have been given specific attention in the India-HCAP manual. Traffic management is also another focus area," Gadkari said.
Gadkari on Monday said, highways are crucial for country's development and there is a need to follow successful best practices in the world regarding construction of roads and highways.
India was among the very few South Asian countries which did not have the practice of having a country specific HCAP manual. The US and Danish authorities had pioneered the practice of having a key document to set highway construction standards all across their countries.
Gadkari said, use of different material and technologies to construct roads can be effective. The Minister said, he has been constantly asking for developing better designs of speed breakers.
"Currently, speed breakers are not good enough and generally it has been noticed that people are suffering from back pain due to it," Gadkari said.
Gadkari said he is focused on improving road security and it is a matter of shame that people are suffering from road accidents and are being killed due to poor road engineering.
If all goes well, the INDO-HCM will be adopted this year by NHAI and state PWD agencies and the days of riding highways with odd depressions or bumps, could soon be a thing of the past.
