Gandhinagar: Among key interventions that the Gujarat govt has planned to curb accidents and save lives in road crashes is a proposal to establish special cells in all urban and rural civic bodies to function as nodal agencies for implementing various measures to control accidents.“Municipal corporations, municipalities and other local self-govt bodies have cells set up to handle different projects and activities. However, local urban and rural bodies lack dedicated cells to implement various interventions for road safety. These proposed cells will act as nodal agencies to oversee a range of road safety measures,” said a source.According to official data, there has been a 3.6% rise in road fatalities and a 12.4% increase in grievous injuries in the past three years ending 2025. “While a state-level road safety authority and district-level road safety committees have been formed, the state govt has now decided to set up cells in urban and rural civic bodies as well to oversee and implement various schemes, including the ‘Good Samaritans’ scheme as well as the PM Rahat Scheme, which is meant to provide treatment to accident victims,” said an official.Apart from creating dedicated cells in civic bodies, other planned interventions include deploying nodal officers from the R&B, police and health departments for better inter-department coordination, developing e-enforcement infrastructure on high-risk corridors, rectification of blackspot, initiating joint patrolling by the police and the transport department, and deploying R&B highway patrol teams.
