With India reporting more than 1.8 lakh road crash fatalities in 2024, policymakers, researchers, enforcement agencies and civil society representatives convened in Kolkata on Thursday to deliberate on strategies aimed at reducing road deaths and serious injuries by 50 per cent by 2030. The high-level dialogue, organised by the Road Safety Network (RSN) in partnership with IIT Kharagpur at the IIT Kharagpur Research Park, focused on evidence-based policy interventions, scientific speed management and safer urban mobility. Government officials, public health experts and road safety practitioners discussed measures to strengthen road safety through data-driven planning, improved infrastructure and coordinated institutional action.
A major focus of the discussions was over-speeding, which the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ *Road Accidents 2024* report identified as the cause of 62 per cent of all road accidents and over one lakh fatalities nationwide. The report also highlighted pedestrians and two-wheeler riders as the most vulnerable road users. The event highlighted West Bengal’s scientific speed management framework, described as the first of its kind in the country, as a model for aligning speed limits with road conditions, land use and pedestrian safety.
IIT Kharagpur also presented findings from a study on a 51-km stretch of NH-16 between Balihati and Kolaghat, which showed that design-based interventions reduced operating speeds by up to 45 per cent for cars, while also lowering crash severity and fatalities. Experts said the findings reinforce the need to replicate such interventions across the country. Participants stressed that achieving India’s road safety targets would require safer road design, context-specific speed limits, technology-enabled enforcement, stronger emergency response systems and better coordination among transport, police, health and urban development agencies.