The Road Safety Initiatives in Kerala - Lessons Learnt Presented by: SONY THOMAS Consultant World Bank Group

Transport Infrastructure of Kerala Positives: Total length of road network: 3.72 lakh kilometres The road density: 853 Km/100 sq.km. against the National average of 387 km/100 sq.km. The length of road per lakh population: 958 km. against the National average of 402km 36% ( km) of total road network is black topped and 14% (54421 km) are cement concrete. Challenges: Due to scattered habitation, ribbon development and population density, the land acquisition and construction of new roads or widening of existing roads is almost impossible. The existing traffic volume is beyond the road capacity. The growth of traffic at a rate of 10 to 11 percent a year. The vehicle population have gone up to 500 percent since 2001.

However, in spite of a number of challenges including the exponential growth of traffic and inadequate road development, in 2014, the number of road traffic accidents in Kerala have touched the lowest of the past 15 years. Accidents: In 2001, Kerala was the 2 nd highest in India. In 2014 it became the 6 th in the country RTA Deaths: In 2001, Kerala was the 10 th highest in India. In 2014 it became the 15 th in the country.

Rate of increase in Accidents – 2001 to 2014 States Rate of increase in numbers Rate of increase in percentage Kerala % Tamil Nadu % Karnataka % AP+Telangana % Rate of increase in Death – 2001 to 2014 States Rate of increase in numbers Rate of increase in percentage Kerala % Tamil Nadu % Karnataka % AP+Telangana %

-05% Decrease 33% Increase 68% Increase

Ratio of increase: 63% Ratio of increase: 81% Ratio of increase: 78% Ratio of increase: 107%

How did Kerala get there? A combination of many factors, such as: good vision, careful planning, persistent follow-ups, good leadership, political will, financial and technical support, etc.

Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) In 2001, the Govt. of Kerala realized the need for taking URGENT ACTION to cut down the increasing number of road traffic accidents in the State. Subsequently, with the support of World Bank, a Draft Road Safety Action Plan was prepared in The plan acknowledged the need for developing a multi-stakeholder approach for attaining road safety results. However, it required proper strategy and technical support to conver the plan into reality. In 2002, the World Bank funded project known as Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) was started. The GoK and World Bank then mutually agreed to develop a road safety component under the project.

KSTP.. Under the road safety component of KSTP, it was decided to establish a sustainable mechanism to improve the road safety in the State. Subsequently, in 2003, the following sub-components were added to the project: 1.Road safety Engineering 2.Road safety awareness program. 3.Review and implementation of the Road Safety Action Plan (RSAP).

1- Road Safety Engineering Under this sub-component, 250 km of State Highways were upgraded and heavy maintenance works done on 1200 km of SH and MDRs. A Road Safety Cell was established under the PWD and designated Engineers were given training in road safety auditing and blackspot improvement programs. Along with this, road safety audit and blackspot studies were conducted at major locations across the State in consultation with Police and Transport Departments. Blackspot improvement programs were conducted at several locations in NH and SHs.

2- Road Safety Awareness and Education A comprehensive road safety awareness program was developed and implemented to improve the knowledge of different road user categories such as: Communities living near to KSTP roads (1500 kms) Taxi and Auto-rickshaw drivers of the project area (nearly 3000 drivers participated in the half day training programs organized in 38 locations) Junior Road Safety Officer (JRSO) program for school children. (512 schools from the project area participated in the program) Two-wheeler safety programs at colleges on the project area. Numerous awareness materials including videos, books, etc. were produced. Training was given to nearly 500 sub-inspector trainees of police who would be later posted across the State.

3- Implementation of road safety action plan (RSAP) A team of Experts were mobilised to review, develop and implement the RSAP. The team worked with stakeholder departments and delivered the following reports and services: Coordination & Management of Road Safety Crash Data System - GeoKAMS Training for Traffic Police & Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) on international best practice in traffic and road safety enforcement Training for MVD officials for Driver Training & Testing Review of Emergency medical assistance to crash victims Funding of Road Safety Activities

Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA) In response to the RSAP, the Govt. of Kerala prepared a Bill to constitute a multi-departmental road safety authority and fund for various road safety activities. Subsequently, in 2006 January, an Ordinance was passed by the Govt. of Kerala, which provided for the constitution of the Kerala Road Safety Authority. ‘The Kerala Road Safety Authority Act-2007’ provides a legal framework for the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA) and constituting a dedicated ‘Road Safety Fund’ for the road safety activities in the State.

KRSA – Functions… Advise Government on Road Safety policies, prescribe & enforce Road Safety standards and procedures Formulate and implement schemes, projects and programs Coordinate functions of Government Departments discharging the duties related to Road Safety Sanction expenditure & implement various road safety programs initiated by stakeholders Sanction funds for purchase and Installation of equipment/ devices connected with Road Safety Conduct road safety studies and research programs Support post-crash trauma-care projects/activities

KRSA – Cont.. KRSA is chaired by the Transport Minister, and PWD Minister as Vice- Chairman. The 21 member KRSA meets at least once in six months. Transport Commissioner is the Road Safety Commissioner Heads of all stakeholder departments are members of KRSA There is an Executive Committee (EC), chaired by the Chief Secretary. The major functions of the EC is to execute the decisions taken by KRSA. The 8 member EC meets at least once a month.

Kerala Road Safety Fund Section 11 of the KRSA Act provides establishment of the dedicate Road Safety Fund within one year of establishment of KRSA. The fund will be collected as per the following means and deposited into a designated Bank Account: 1.the one-time cess collected from all registered vehicle owners under sub- section (6) of section 10 of the ACT; 2.grants, loans or advances made by the Government; 3.grants, loans or advances made by the Government of India; 4.contributions from public or private institutions or organisations; 5.compounding fee collected under section 28 of the ACT. 6.50% of the compounding fee collected under Section 200 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (Central Act 59 of 1988)

A snapshot of the dedicated Fund in 2014 Fund collected during the year crores Funding of road safety activities carried out by the stakeholders: PWD:Rs 16,02,00,000 Police: Rs 28,50,00,000 MVD:Rs 17,04,93,800 Health:Rs 5,50,00,000 NATPAC:Rs 3,60,29,852 DRSCs:Rs 3,70,91,233 KELTRON:Rs 15,93,10,563

Crash Data Management System Availability of accurate data of crashes, such as: who, where, when, how and various critical parameters are important in identifying the bottom-line issues related to crashes and suggest preventive measures. In order to address this, a system known as GeoKAMS (Geographical Kerala Accident Management System) was developed in This was later re-branded as RADMS (Road Accident Data Management System) in In 2009, a modified GIS based Web enabled version was developed by the same agency and implemented in Tamil Nadu. In 2014, a new version of mobile/tablet based RADMS was developed in Himachal Pradesh by the same agency who developed the Kerala GeoKAMS in Kerala is now preparing to upgrade the RADMs being used by the police for more than 10 years.

Kerala Road Safety Hackathon In 2015, the World Bank Group in association with KRSA and Dept. of IT have organized a 36 hour hackathon to explore technological solutions for road safety. Over 170 participants (42 teams) between young students and middle- aged entrepreneurs devised and created concepts for software or hardware based programs and applications to support road safety. Challenges were given based on 4 E’s of road safety. Among the 42 teams, 13 ideas were short-listed.

Hackathon cont.. Out of 42 teams, 13 ideas were short-listed. Some of them are: Motorcycle telematics: how wearable devices can provide health and GPS data to smartphones, and could be used in telematics (including anxiety management while driving). Drones that carry emergency aid more quickly than vehicles traveling by road. ‘Smart helmet’: besides providing better protection, this helmet features an embedded radio device paired with the bike that only allows it to start for someone wearing the helmet (the helmet also features a tail light). Smart traffic lights that provide real time traffic situation information via GPS and cloud services, particularly in remote areas where GPS data is not always accurate. ‘Raksha Beacon’, a crash device that can communicate an alarm to a nearby police station or ambulance and be used as a phone in case of a sudden brake event correlated to an accident. ‘Third eye’: a real-time monitoring system for crowd-sourced traffic events. ‘Bon voyage’: a mobile app that gives credit points to drivers for good driving behavior which can be subsequently redeemed.

With a number of pilot road safety initiatives, the seeds of road safety was sown in Kerala. The World Bank funded KSTP played a strategic role in nurturing the entire activities. The KRSA Act-2007 is being modelled by many other States to frame their own RS Policies GeoKAMS/RADMS is being implemented in other States also The pilot implementation of road safety awareness program was later taken over by NATPAC and Police. The JRSO program was rebranded by Kerala Police as ‘Student Police Cadet (SPC)’ project and now it is implemented in almost all schools in the State. Currently, some other States (Rajasthan and Orissa) are also planning to implement SPC program. KRSA through MVD and NATPAC had conducted 3200 drivers training programs between Nearly, 200,000 taxi/auto drivers could benefit from the program

How would you explain these.. No office: Despite having a well furnished brand new 2000 sq.ft office space in existence for nearly 2 years, the KRSA could not start functioning in it. No Staff: The KRSA do not have required number of personnel to review stakeholder requirements, budgeting, management of accounts, administration, etc. Some of the best road safety specialists in the world spent nearly two years in Kerala and produced several volumes of reports and guidelines for effectively managing the road safety activities. These reports never saw the light of day. Currently, a new team of road safety specialists are trying to capacity build the KRSA, but due to some reason, the project remains at same place where they started an year ago..!!

Lessons Learnt The Kerala road safety experience teaches two things: 1.The example of extremely effective manner in which the experts, bureaucrats and politicians worked together to form a powerful institution like KRSA, KRSA Act, KRSA Fund, etc. 2.An example of poor leadership that can spoil a well founded system. There are three important things necessary for sustainable road safety: 1.Motivation 2.Good Leadership 3.Political Will

Thank You.. SONY THOMAS Consultant Road Safety, Community Specialist