Why in news:

• In its renewed effort towards road safety and prevention of road accidents, the state government announced establishment of Rajasthan Public Transport Authority.
• The authority will be established by bringing in Road Safety Act along with development of State Road Safety Institute in Jaipur

Key Points:

• Apart from this, two-lane work of state highways will be expedited and the Sikar-Bikaner highway will be developed into an accident-free stretch.
• The Chief minister of Rajasthan has emphasised that accidents will be prevented and there will be regular checking of drivers and strict action will be taken against those who are found to be flouting the rules.
• Just few months back, the government had also renamed Transport department to Transport and Road Safety Department.
• According to the government’s approach, there are both long term as well as short term measures underway to make the roads in Rajasthan safer.
• Recently, the road safety audit carried out on NH-8 between Jaipur and Bhilwara by a team of transport and road safety department, along with other nodal agencies.
• The audit revealed that the stretch between Jaipur to Kishangarh is most vulnerable due to numerous crossings and junctions on the highway following which it was decided to develop it into a model stretch which will be replicated elsewhere as well.
• The aim is to find vulnerabilities on the roads which are more prone to accidents and develop the infrastructure in a manner that the victims get help in time.
• The budget announcement of road safety institute is also a step in this direction.
• In Rajasthan, the number of accidents from 2015 to 2018 saw a steady dip though the number increased in 2019 with 23480 accidents recorded in the same year.
• However, this number came down to approximately 20,000 accidents in the year 2020 but increased again last year.
• Since 2015 more than 70,000 persons have also lost their lives due to road accidents in the state and double the number have been injured in 1.5 lakh accidents from 2015 to 2021.
• Officials claimed that in the year 2020 the number of accidents reduced due to the pandemic which increased in 2021 though this figure was still lower than 2019.