India's Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Mr. Kamal Nath on September 23, 2009 launched the National Campaign for "Reduction of Road Fatalities" a joint initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and International Roads Federation (IRF), a Washington and Geneva based worldwide organization for advocacy for development of safe roads with members from 90 countries across six continents, at jam packed centrally located Stein Auditorium of India Habitat Centre (IHC) in New Delhi. As per the National Programme a target of reducing road accident deaths by 50 percent by the year 2012 has been set by the Ministry. India accounts for 10 percent of global road accident deaths with about 125,000 fatalities and at least half-a-million serious injuries each year. The country is losing 3% of its GDP to road crashes every year. Minister Mr. Kamal Nath, while launching the national campaign stressed on the need of changing the outdated Motor Vehicle Act to address the specific concerns of road safety. He said that we should improve the engineering design of roads along with accelerated road building programme to the standards of safe and 'Forgiving Roads'. He complimented the partnership of NDTV in this National Campaign with their media role to reach out to the masses. Mr. Kamal Nath also said that this problem of road safety has not been addressed holistically till now, and therefore, the National Campaign is to aim for coordination at every step to realize the change in the mind set and attitude towards this problem. Mr K. K. Kapila, Vice chairman, IRF and main host of the event demanded that the Government should seek active participation of Corporate houses in building infrastructures having direct bearing on road safety, and the government should exempt tax on these expenditures incurred by the corporate houses in a given year."As per the National Campaign, training of drivers will take place on driving simulators by establishing driver training schools in small and big towns uniformly. Driver licensing system will be made stricter and only drivers with required driving skills would be given license. Those already holding licenses should also be trained, wherever necessary", Mr. Kapila elaborated. "The road users will be educated through traditional and modern media including showing of road safety films on the television, bringing out road safety messages in newspapers, road safety skits on radio network, printing road signs and safety messages on the inside front cover and inside back cover of school text books, for inculcating safety awareness and behaviour in our future road users", Mr. Kapila added. "The campaign will also work towards painting the Mudguard, in luminous orange colour, for all motorized two-wheelers through respective manufacturing industries, and similarly the entire cycle frame and mudguard of bicycles. This single action will immediately help in reduction of the road fatalities", he added. Earlier on the occasion, Professor P. K. Sikdar presented the need of the National Campaign with a grim picture of the country's road safety scenario with 363 road deaths per day. "54% of all road fatalities across the country are to the vulnerable road users, which is even 75-90% in cities. An attempt to address this problem with appropriate infrastructures will save a major share of the total yearly loss of Rs. 75,000 crores", he added. He also emphasized the need of a multi-prong approach with strong political leadership to tackle this man-made calamity with involvement of all stakeholders in an institutionalized system from conception to operation of the roads, with targeted road safety built in it. Dr. Prannoy Roy felt delighted to be the media partner with the Ministry and IRF for such a gigantic problem of the country which has not been addressed by the media adequately. "Although 13 people are getting killed every hour, it is one or two at a time and place making it less sensational, and therefore, media has failed to spread the message about the biggest killer in India," He retorted. He felt proud with NDTV's partnership in this National Campaign. Mr. Brahm Dutt, Secretary, MoRTH confessed that "The efforts made so far by the Ministry had very little impact as seen from the road safety scenario presented". Expressing happiness about the Launch of the National Campaign, Mr. Dutt hoped that IRF will steer the programme and garner the support from industries and NGOs; and he promised all necessary support and cooperation from the Ministry. Mr. Nirmaljit Singh, Director General & Special Secretary, MoRTH expressed satisfaction that IRC has been able to prepare the guidelines for 4 and 6 laning of highways. According to him, the roads are being built to the international standards with appropriate provisions in the Contract. "Road safety audit is conducted for NHDP roads and corrective steps are taken using the recommendations", he explained. However, he suggested that implementation of the overloading rule of M.V. Act should be made feasible; and the awareness campaign with corresponding enforcement of traffic rules should be able to bring in safe road use behaviours. The dignitaries present on the occasion of the Launch included Secretaries and other officials of Road and Road Transport from centre and various states, Representatives of PPP Concessionaires, Contractors, ADB, WB, etc. NGOs, Consultants, Insurance Companies, Automobile Manufacturers, Suppliers of road safety materials, FICCI, CII, ASSOCHM, PHDCCI and Automobile associations were also present at the highly attended launch ceremony.

Fourth Regional Conference of International Road Federation, in India, was held at New Delhi on 23rd and 24th October 2009. It was organized by International Road Federation on "Accident Prevention: Road Safety Measures".

As you may perhaps be aware that over one lakh persons get killed evey year in our country in the road accidents causing loss of human lives as well as loss of property.This underlines the urgency of road safety measures.As a part of awareness campaign on road safety,"Road Safety Week" is observed throughout the country every year in the month of January in order to highlight and emphasize the need for safe roads by taking up activities to promote the concept. As in the past,it has been decided to observe the 21st Road Safety week from 1st to 7th January 2010.The theme of the Road Safety Week this time is "Life is Safe if driving is safe".

IRF India Chapter in Association with Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) has taken initiative for delivering Certification Courses for “Road Safety Auditors”. With the aim of building capacity for road safety audit works in the country (i.e. India) by creating trained experts for road safety audit works and to certify them for international level recognition, two courses were organized successfully back to back in first two weeks of February 2010. These training courses were organized in two consecutive weeks during 1st to 5th February and 8th to 12th February 2010. The training has been imparted by both ARRB and Indian experts. The training courses had special requirement for entry qualifications, and then 90% attendance and passing of an evaluation test of the auditing skills developed by the trainees. A Certificate has been issued to each trained auditor, who fulfilled all the special requirements, by the ARRB and IRF (India) jointly. These auditors will be carrying out the RSA in the country in coming time.The trainees were selected based on educational background, past training and the experience. Those who have a degree in Civil Engineering or post-graduate degree or diploma in Traffic Engineering/Highway Engineering/Transportation Engineering etc or at least 10 years of experience in related work were eligible for the certification course.The course material was designed jointly by ARRB and IRF (India), and the course was structured for appropriate development of RSA skills in the participants.The two courses are attended by a total of 50 participants (18 participants in the first course and 32 participants in the second). The faculty / experts were:Mr. Richard Jois, ARRBProf. P. K. Sikdar, IRF (India)Mr. R. K. Bajpai, ICT Pvt. Ltd.Mr. Jacob George, ICT Pvt. Ltd.Dr. Nishi Mittal, CRRIDr. S. Velmurugan, CRRIDr. K. Ravinder, CRRIThe courses had exclusive components of practical audit works in groups guided by mentors, which provided real world audit experience to the participants.Through strict attendance and evaluation test 47 paticipants have been certified as auditors, while 3 participants have received certificate of participation as they did not meet the qualification and experience criteria for selection to the Auditors’ Course, but wanted to attend anyway. The fee charged for the course was a subsidized amount of Indian Rupees 35,000 per candidate.The course was conducted with strict requirement of the attendance as 90% minimum and a pass in the final evaluation test. All the participants for the certification courses fulfilled the requirements at a level much above the requirements. The course material is given to the participants at the beginning of the course as a bound volume. In addition, they have been given a CD with complete set of course materials. Further, they have been given the Austroad RSA Checklists and the Checklist of Draft IRC Manual for Road Safety Audit. The courses have been supported by Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Govt. of India, International Road Federation (India), and gTKP(Global Transport knowledge Partnership financially in addition to the course fee charged from the participants.

The 16th IRF World Road Meeting will be held in Lisbon from 25 to 28 May 2010, and will be attended by major international players from the road sector. Roads and their users, the role of roads in trade and life, roads and their impact on society; these are issues needing answers, both now and in the future. The aim of the 16th IRF World Road Meeting is to provide a forum for debates, discussions and proposals leading to tomorrow’s solutions.

IRF India chapter held its 5th Regional Conference on Road Safety from 25-26 November 2010 in New Delhi, India. Themed ‘Institutional Arrangements for Reduction of Road Fatalities’, the event attracted some 300 international participants.

An International policy on reduction of carbon emissions during road construction was launched in New Delhi by the International Road Federation. The IRF policy was released at simultaneous held events in Geneva, Washington DC, New Delhi, Africa, China, Australia and New Zealand. Mr Brahm Dutt former secretary ministry of roads and Highways while releasing the report in India said that “The road construction industry should develop innovative and eco friendly materials as well use recovered and recycled materials to further green the transport infrastructure and reduce the per capita carbon footprints in the country.” Mr Dutt said “Developing countries including India has to construct a huge network of roads in next 10 to 20 years coming years to reduce the travel time and distance for transporting people and products and other material from place to place. However, for each mile of these new but traditionally constructed roads,thousands of tons of materials such as aggregate stone,concrete,asphalt and steel are needed, let alone all of the diesel fuel required to power the construction equipment and to transport materials to and from the project site. This not only eats up precious natural resources but emit tones of pollution.” Mr Dutt said that “ There is great need develop green highways and roads with less damaging way by recovering and recycling existing in situ materials and utilising specially engineered binders to produce effective stabilised building materials that enable existing waste streams like fly ash in the road construction. Now is the time to embrace a new way to design, plan, build and maintain road infrastructure, consistent with green road building practices.” Mr KK Kapila chairman of International Road Federation speaking on the occasion “International Road Federation is taking action and leading the way to meet the calls for a greener transport system, the IRF Policy Statement on the Environment places in perspective the crucial contribution that need to be made to through safe and sustainable road infrastructure resolve to be at the vanguard of efforts to further improve the environmental performance of the road sector.” Mr Kapila added that “The major highlights of the IRF policy are Safeguard the environment to the maximum extent possible,Mitigate any adverse effects through pro-active consideration of environmental issues at every stage of planning and implementation,Manage and use resources efficiently, encourage and provide incentives for ongoing innovation, so as to continually promote better environmental performance. IRF believes, however, that,if widely adopted and wisely applied, these recommendations will prove that economic development and protection of the environment need not be irreconcilable goals; and that viable green road infrastructure is today a reality.” He said that “In keeping with IRF’s overall approach characterised by initiatives such as the CHANGER greenhouse gas calculator software the Policy Statement is intended as a catalyst to raise awareness, promote immediate practical action,demonstrate the inherent ‘triple bottom line’ benefits and most of all, inspire further innovation throughout the sector.”

IRF India Chapter in association with Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) had organized Certification Courses for Road Safety Auditors in 2011. These courses have been highly appreciated both in India and abroad.