Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari today raised serious concerns about road accidents in the country and urged Members of Parliament to raise awareness in their respective constituencies. Replying to the question hours in Lok Sabha, the Minister said 5 lakh road accidents happen in the country annually, resulting in an average of 1.8 lakh deaths. He said of these, 66 per cent of deaths are among young people of an age between 18 and 34 years old. Mr Gadkari informed that around 7,000 black spots have been rectified, and a special scheme is being implemented with a total outlay of 40,000 crore rupees to resolve this issue.

The Minister said under the ‘Rah-Veer’ scheme, launched earlier in 2025, those who rush accident victims to hospitals will be honoured with the title ‘Rah-Veer’ and a cash reward of 25,000 rupees. He said the victims of road accidents will be entitled to cashless medical care of up to 1.5 lakh per person per accident for the initial seven days of hospitalisation, with the government facilitating payments to remove financial barriers to immediate treatment.

The Minister outlined plans for a centralised emergency helpline integrated with upgraded ambulance services. He said through agreements with states, modern ambulances will be deployed to reach accident sites faster, targeting response times as low as 10 minutes in key areas. Citing a study by AIIMS, Mr Gadkari noted that timely medical intervention alone could avoid almost 50,000 road accident deaths every year in India.