Govt to change DPR selection procedure for national highway projects
'As an alternative, DPRs will be assessed on multiple parameters through a points-based system by a joint team of senior ministry officials and premier academic institutions,' Tamta said during a meeting held in IIT-Delhi on road safety, along with the SPA (School of Planning and Architecture) Delhi.
He said that preparing DPRs that account for local conditions is of paramount importance, and those preparing DPRs should mandatorily visit project sites rather than rely on technology. He said that in the coming days, there will be an opportunity for people with visionary thought, including people in the startup ecosystem.
He said that innovation must be the cornerstone of MoRTH's future planning strategy and highlighted the role of Centres of Excellence (CoEs) as incubators for such cross-disciplinary ideas.
The MoS said this change in policy of choosing DPRs incorporating engineering and planning aspects will be instrumental in realising India's aim of reducing road accident fatalities by 50% by 2030 as part of the Stockholm Declaration.
'If DPRs are chosen carefully, we will have fewer road accidents.' He cited the latest official data of 2022, which found that 1,68,000 people died as a result of road accidents in India. India, despite having a lower number of vehicles per capita, has one of the highest numbers of deaths, contributing 11.7% of all deaths due to road accidents.
Tamta's senior colleague and minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, has also spoken about how road engineering is a prime culprit for road accidents in multiple public forums.
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