India’s Road Safety Funds: Rs 823 Cr Corpus but Only Rs 65 Cr Spent, Says Data

The Maharashtra State Road Safety Fund has collected Rs 823 crore since 2016 until FY 23-end, but only Rs 65 crore has been spent on road safety initiatives. Despite experiencing over 91,000 deaths in road accidents from 2016 to 2022, the government has mainly used the fund to purchase interceptor vehicles and some gadgets, such as breath analyzers and speed guns, according to official documents. The seven-member high power committee has approved Rs 820.04 crore proposals from various departments, but most projects are still on paper. The transport department alleges the lack of spending on the Road Safety Fund corpus is due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but many critics scrutinize the lack of capacity-building projects. Experts suggest that research activities and officer training are also necessary to improve road safety. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation has spent Rs 1 crore on 347 Alcotest machines, and the transport department spent around Rs 2.5 crore on purchasing 65 simulators.