India must intensify efforts to discover and implement innovative solutions, best practices, and forward-looking policies to transform its road network for the future. Despite significant progress in road infrastructure, the nation remains at a critical crossroads of safety, sustainability, and technological advancement.
With over 1.7 lakh road fatalities annually, India faces an urgent safety crisis. While global road deaths have reduced by 5%, India has witnessed a 10% increase—highlighting the need for technology-led, data-backed, and infrastructure-driven action.
As India moves toward becoming a $5 trillion economy, robust and safe infrastructure is essential. Yet challenges persist: congestion, climate resilience, road safety, and digital integration.
To build smart and sustainable road infrastructure, India must adopt green highways, climate-adaptive materials, low-carbon technologies, and circular economy principles emphasizing Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse in construction.
Technology will play a central role through AI-powered traffic management, IoT-based monitoring, digital twins, and EV-ready corridors. Strengthening safety infrastructure through automated enforcement, smart road markings, connected vehicles, and Safe Driving Scores (SDS) can significantly improve driver behaviour and reduce accidents.
India’s road transformation will depend on strategic innovation, sustainable practices, and a strong policy framework to create a safer, more efficient mobility future.
India needs stronger collaborations between policymakers, industry, and academia to develop a sustainable and safe roads ecosystem. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and policy incentives must be leveraged for large-scale infrastructure modernization. Global best practices, emerging technologies, and data-driven insights must guide future infrastructure planning.
Country needs a holistic approach to road safety, combining the latest technological advancements with innovative practices to create safer roads for everyone. By prioritizing safety in every aspect of road design, construction, and management, this theme seeks to move towards a future where road accidents become a rarity, ultimately aiming for zero fatalities.
Road safety experts have stressed on the need of embedding road safety features at the stage of planning and designing of roads and ensuring its implementation by the road infrastructure companies for making safer and better roads in the country.
Globally, road accidents account for 1.3 million deaths and 50 million injuries, with many living their lives with permanent disabilities. Of this, India’s contribution to the fatalities is about 12%.To reduce fatal road accidents in India engineers need to design roads that address the needs of all and guide drivers behavior. Steps need to be taken to improve safety of roads infrastructure for both new and existing roads both in the residential areas and highways
With 90 per cent of casualties occurring in developing countries, road crashes are the leading cause of death around the world for children and young people between 15 and 29 years of age. The best solution to reduce fatal road accidents is to develop safer roads with at least 3-5 star safety rating as research has shown that a person’s risk of death or serious injury is approximately halved for each incremental rating for star rating
What India needs is a Road safety vaccine on similar lines of Covid19 vaccine. This road accident vaccine should include tougher licensing norms, star rating for drivers, stricter electronic enforcement. Country needs infrastructure safety star ratings to be published, so that the community better understands the safety of our roads. Just like the safety ratings of the cars India needs to know the safety ratings of the roads public is driving on
International Road Federation (IRF) as part of its effort to reduce fatal road accidents in the country has taken up safe road construction projects in seven states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan , Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. These roads will be safest roads in the country with minimum accidents and almost no road fatality; the most desirable design standards are being selected and implemented. The 5E’s of safe road operation including Engineering, Enforcement, Encouragement, Education and Emergency care are being fully carried out while construction of the highway is in full swing.
