Good Initiative: Cashless Treatment for road accident victims

Union Transport minister Nitin Gadkari informed of a scheme useful for accident victims across the nation.

He said that the central government will come up with a modified scheme by this March to provide cashless treatment for road accident victims, under which they will be entitled to a maximum amount of Rs 1.5 lakh per accident per person.

Gadkari said that the scheme will be applicable to all road accidents involving use of motor vehicles, on any category of road.

The National Health Authority (NHA) shall be the implementing agency for the programme, in coordination with the police, hospitals and State Health Agency.

An IT platform will implement the programme, combining the functionalities of the e-Detailed Accident Report (eDAR) application of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the Transaction Management System of NHA.

Addressing media-persons, Gadkari said that the victims would be entitled to cashless treatment up to a maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh per accident per person for a maximum of 7 days from the date of the accident.

It may be recalled that on March 14, 2024, the MoRTH had launched a pilot programme to provide cashless treatment to road accident victims.

The pilot programme was launched in Chandigarh and was aimed at ensuring proper conditions for providing timely medical care to the victims of road accidents, including during the golden hour. The pilot project was later expanded to six states.

Meanwhile, the Road Transport and Highways minister also said the government is studying labour laws to frame a policy for fixing working hours for commercial drivers on the lines of pilots, as driver fatigue was leading to fatal road crashes.

Gadkari said that India was facing a shortage of 22 lakh drivers.

A two-day workshop was held by the MoRTH to discuss issues, solutions and next steps to be taken to help drive transformation in India’s road transport sector.

During the two-day workshop, Gadkari launched the scheme for pan-India setup of Driver Training Institutes (DTI) which would provide incentives for setting up DTIs and additional incentives for integrated infrastructure of ATSs and DTIs.