Staff Reporter
Panaji
As Goa is seeing an alarming rise in the number of road accidents and the resultant fatalities, the state government has come out with a policy to establish a safer, efficient and a technology-driven transport system, which aims to cut road accident deaths by 50% by 2030, through use of data analytics and automation tools like artificial intelligence.
As of September 2024, Goa’s vehicle population has surged to a staggering 13.23 lakh, including 8.69 lakh two-wheelers, and it is growing at an annual rate of 17%. In 2023-24, the state recorded over 2,682 road accidents, resulting
in 286 fatalities.
Apart from the objective of minimising the number of accidents, the Goa Road Safety Policy, 2025, which was notified by the transport department on Friday, seeks to improve enforcement mechanisms and ensure safety for all road users by enhancing road engineering and infrastructure for better mobility.
The policy states that the government will ensure that safer vehicles use roads. It also proposes to enhance driver training and licensing standards, and use technology to implement rules and promote public awareness and road safety culture.
The policy also proposes to set up automated testing stations for assessment of vehicle fitness. The automated testing stations will eliminate manual intervention in fitness testing, ensuring transparency and compliance with the national safety standards. The government will facilitate the setting up of at least one such automated testing station in each district to ensure statewide accessibility and uniform enforcement of vehicle fitness regulations.
The policy provides for setting up at least one Institute of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) or Regional Driving Training Centre (RDTC) in line with the guidelines of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), issued on December 22, 2021.
The policy also plans to achieve complete saturation of installation of High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) on vehicles as mandated under the Motor Vehicles Act. This will ensure uniform identification and tracking of vehicles, it states.
The policy plans to instal vehicle location tracking device (VLTD) on all transport vehicles, with compliance mandatorily checked at the time of renewal of fitness certificate. Speed governors will be fitted in all transport vehicles to prevent over-speeding. State Road Safety Council (SRSC) will periodically review the progress of these measures to ensure compliance and enforcement, according to the policy document.
The Goa Road Safety Policy, 2025, will be implemented over a period of three years from the date of notification. The key initiatives will be executed in a structured manner to ensure effective enforcement, infrastructure development and stakeholder coordination. During this period, a lead agency for road safety will be established as an independent body, and the SRSC will regularly monitor the progress of policy implementation.
