The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019

India sees more than five lakh road accidents a year leading to 1.5 lakh deaths. According to
the Union Transport Minister, this could come down by half if the provisions of this Bill are
implemented.
 The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019 is based on the recommendations of the
Group of Transport Ministers (GoM) of States constituted by the Ministry of Road
Transport & Highways to address the issue of road safety and to improve the access of the
citizens while dealing with transport departments.
 The amendments in the Bill mainly focus on issues relating to improving road safety,
citizens’ facilitation while dealing with the transport department, strengthening rural
transport, last mile connectivity and public transport, automation and computerization and
enabling online services.
Key Features of the bill

 Road safety: Bill proposes to increase penalties to act as a deterrent against traffic
violations.
 Compensation for road accident victims: Cashless treatment of road accident victims
during the golden hour (first 1 hour after accident). The minimum compensation for death
or grievous injury due to hit and run has been moved up substantially to ₹2 lakh and
₹50,000, respectively.
 Road Safety Board: The Bill provides for a National Road Safety Board, to be created by
the central government through a notification. The Board will advise the central and state
governments on all aspects of road safety and traffic management.
 Protection of Good Samaritan: To help road accident victims, Good Samaritan
guidelines have been incorporated in the Bill. They will not be liable for any civil or
criminal action for any injury to or death of an accident victim, caused due to their
negligence in providing assistance to the victim.
 Motor Vehicle Accident Fund: The Bill requires the central government to constitute a
Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, to provide compulsory insurance cover to all road users
in India.
 Third-party insurance terms are friendlier with no cap on liability of insurers and quicker
claims processing.
 To reduce scope for manipulation and corruption in transport departments, vehicle
fitness tests will be automated and driving tests, computerised. Also, the driver training
process for commercial driving will be strengthened and more training schools set up.
 Recall of vehicles: The Bill allows the central government to order for recall of motor
vehicles if a defect in the vehicle may cause damage to the environment, or the driver,
or other road users.
 National Transportation Policy: The central government may develop a National
Transportation Policy, in consultation with state governments.
  Taxi aggregators: The Bill defines aggregators as digital intermediaries or market
places which can be used by passengers to connect with a driver for transportation
purposes (taxi services). These aggregators will be issued licenses by state. Further,
they must comply with the Information Technology Act, 2000.
As per the revised rules, the government has implemented two major changes –
1. Compulsory safety devices in motorcycles
2. Spare tyres not necessary in all the cars

o NOTE(not in this bill) : VAHAN (an ICT-based solution for vehicle registration)
and SARATHI (for licencing) app to curb malpractices in issuing licences and
vehicle registration.

National Transport Development Policy Committee (NTDPC)

The National Transport Development Policy Committee (NTDPC) was formed by
the Government of India in 2010. It was formulated to create a policy environment in order to
provide an integrated and sustainable transport system. Dr. Rakesh Mohan is the chairman of
the committee. It submitted its report at the end of February 2014. The committee emphasized
that India needs to have a single unified transport ministry with a clear mandate to deliver a
multi-modal transport system. It also recommended establishment of Office of Transport
Strategy (OTS) at the national level. The report also included recommendations for setting up
of Indian Institute of Information Technology in Transportation (IIITT).
National Highways Development Project
The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) is a project to upgrade, rehabilitate and
widen major highways in India to a higher standard. The project was started in 1998 under the
leadership of Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. National Highways account for only about 2% of
the total length of roads, but carry about 40% of the total traffic across the length and breadth of
the country. This project is managed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under
the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. The NHDP represents 49,260 km of roads and
highways work and construction in order to boost economic development of the country. The
government has planned to end the NHDP program in early 2018 and consume the ongoing
projects under a larger Bharatmala project.

Project Phases
The project is composed of the following phases:

 Phase I: The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ; 5,846 km) connecting the four major cities
of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. This project connecting four metro cities, is 5,846 km
(3,633 mi). Total cost of the project is Rs.300 billion (US$6.8 billion), funded largely by the
government’s special petroleum product tax revenues and government borrowing. In January
2012, India announced the four-lane GQ highway network as complete.[1][2]
 Phase II: North-South and East-West corridors comprising national highways connecting four
extreme points of the country. The North–South and East–West Corridor (NS-EW; 7,142 km)
connecting Srinagar in the north to Kanyakumari in the south, including spur
from Salem to Kanyakumari (Via Coimbatore and Kochi) and Silchar in the east to Porbandar in
the west. Total length of the network is 7,142 km (4,438 mi). As of 31 October 2016, 90.99% of
the project had been completed, 5.47% of the project work is under Implementation and 3.52%
of the total length is left.[3][4] It also includes Port connectivity and other projects — 435 km
(270 mi). The final completion date to 28 February 2009 at a cost of Rs.350 billion (US$8 billion),
with funding similar to Phase I.
 Phase III: The government on 12 April 2007 approved NHDP-III to upgrade 12,109 km
(7,524 mi)of national highways on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis, which takes into
account high-density traffic, connectivity of state capitals via NHDP Phase I and II, and
connectivity to centres of economic importance.
 Phase IV: The government on 18 June 2008 approved widening 20,000 km (12,000 mi) of
highway that were not part of Phase I, II, or III. Phase IV will convert existing single-lane
highways into two lanes with paved shoulders.
 Phase V: As road traffic increases over time, a number of four-lane highways will need to be
upgraded/expanded to six lanes. On 5 October 2006 the government approved for upgrade of
about 5,000 km (3,100 mi) of four-lane roads.
 Phase VI: The government is working on constructing 1,000 km (620 mi) expressways that
would connect major commercial and industrial townships. It has already identified 400 km
(250 mi) of Vadodara (earlier Baroda)-Mumbai section that would connect to the existing
Vadodara (earlier Baroda)-Ahmedabad section. The World Bank is studying this project. The
project will be funded on BOT basis. The 334 km (208 mi) Expressway between Chennai—
Bangalore and 277 km (172 mi) Expressway between Kolkata—Dhanbad has been identified
and feasibility study and DPR contract has been awarded by NHAI.
 Phase VII: This phase calls for improvements to city road networks by adding ring roads to
enable easier connectivity with national highways to important cities. In addition, improvements
will be made to stretches of national highways that require additional flyovers and bypasses
given population and housing growth along the highways and increasing traffic. The government
has planned to invest Rs. 16,680 Cr for this phase. The 19 km (12 mi) long Chennai Port—
Maduravoyal Elevated Expressway is being executed under this phase.

HIGHWAY RENUMBERING 2010

On 28 April 2010, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways officially notified the
rationalized number system of the national highway network in the Gazette of the Government
of India. It is a systematic numbering scheme based on the orientation and the geographic
location of the highway. This was adopted to ensure more flexibility and consistency in the
numbering of existing and new national highways.

Highlights of the new Rationalized Numbering System are:

1. All East-West highways now have odd numbers, starting in the North and increasing
in number towards the South. In other words, the greater the latitude the smaller the
N-H number and vice-versa ie NH-1 in J&K and NH-87 in Tamil Nadu.
2. Similarly, all North-South highways now have even numbers, starting in the East and
increasing in number towards the West. In other words, the greater the longitude the
smaller the NH number and vice-versa i.e NH-2 in the North-East States of India and
NH-68 in Rajasthan & Gujarat.
3. Major highways have single- or double-digit numbers. Offshoots of these
highways have triple digits (either with or without a suffix alphabet). For example,
offshoots of NH 2 are numbered 102, 202, 302 and 502. Please note that the last two
digits indicate the Major Highway.
4. In the numbering of the Offshoot Highways, the first digit of the three digit number
will indicate the direction i.e if the first digit is odd number it says the road is in East-
West direction and if even it indicates North–South direction.
5. Suffixes A, B, C, D etc are added to the three digit sub highways to indicate very small
spin-offs or stretches of sub-highways. For example,966A, 527B etc

As per the new system of NH numbering there are 218 NHs in India. 78 Major Highways [East-
West highways – 44 (NH-1 to NH-87), North-South Highways – 34 (NH-2 to NH-68) and 140
Offshoot Highways