Centre speeds up establishment of district level driving institutes to curb road accidents across India

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Centre speeds up establishment of district level driving institutes to curb road accidents across India



NEW DELHI: Six months after its launch, groundwork has begun on an ambitious project to establish at least one Institute of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) in every district across the states. According to the officials, familiar with the matter, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has already approved proposals for 20 such institutes, with 20 more currently in the pipeline. Revised guidelines for one time grant to establish such training facilities were released in January. “On daily basis, the ministry is receiving proposals. The matter is being taken up on priority. There was some confusion as the matter had land in the Supreme Court after which it was believed that the Court had put a stay. The Government is giving a subsidy of Rs 2.5 crore however the cost is Rs 3-3.5 crore,”said officials.The ministry is implementing a scheme to establish IDTRs across India, with support from the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions. These institutes aim to improve road safety by providing quality driving training, particularly for commercial vehicle drivers, and promoting better traffic management and overall mobility.As per the revised guidelines, there will be one institute for 2.5 crore population in tier one cities. The criterion for setting up of the regional driving training centres is one crore population for 2-tier cities and a district will have at least one such facility for every one lakh people with the maximum ceiling of four with certain conditions.The guidelines state that land should be encroachment and encumbrance free for which the cost will be borne by the state governments and union territories (UTs). The Centre will provide one time grant and the local government or administration will bear the recurring expenditure of the facility.The scheme was launched by the Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari earlier this year. The guidelines say that the proposal for driving and training institutes should invariably contain provisions of automated driving test tracks. The Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT), Pune will be the monitoring agency and provide technical and handholding support for IDTR to states and UTs for setting up of those centres.In March, Gadkari urged parliamentarians, members of the Consultative Committee of Members of Parliament attached to the ministry on road safety, to send proposals for setting up driving training institutes in their constituency.



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