MoRTH plans mandatory insurance for all road users and cashless treatment for accident victims
Date: December 05, 2023. — The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is planning to introduce a scheme of cashless treatment for all road accident victims across the country, as part of the amended Motor Vehicle Act 2019 (MVA2019). The information about this plan was shared by senior officer of MoRTH, at a recently held meet in New Delhi. This will be implemented jointly with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), through the National Health Authority (NHA), the key agency for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), involving over 21,000 hospitals. This initiative aims to provide mandatory insurance coverage to all road users in the country, irrespective of their financial capacity. Additionally, the plan includes the establishment of a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund to support the treatment of road accident victims. It also aims to compensate those injured or the families of individuals who lose their lives in hit-and-run incidents.
Additionally an electronic Detailed Accident Report (e-DAR) Project has been setup. “The Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD) / e-Detailed Accident Report (eDAR) Project is an initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Government of India and is funded by World Bank, with objective to improve road safety in the country. The main objective of the project is development of Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD), to enrich the accident databases from every parts of the country.” ~iRAD/eDAR
This will help establish a central repository of road accidents being reported from across the country. The objective is to make roads safe and rectify faults in road engineering wherever necessary in time bound manner.
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has undertaken many initiatives to improve road safety. These include- identification and rectification of black spots, installation of crash barriers, improvement of road signage and markings, enforcement of helmet and seat belt laws, and awareness campaigns.
MoRTH is also actively working on the development of a comprehensive National Road Safety Policy. This policy will address the road safety challenges in the country. MoRTH in collaboration with IRF, WHO, UN, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank, the MoRTH aims to elevate road safety standards.
