India State Support Program for Road Safety

Context: World Bank approves $250 mn loans for road safety.

Key Points: 

• The World Bank has approved a $250 million loan India State Support Program for Road Safety.  It will be implemented in seven Indian states, i.e., Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and West Bengal. 
• The $250 million loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) have a maturity of 18 years, including a grace period of 5.5 years.
• A single accident reporting number will be set up to manage post-crash events better. It will establish a national harmonised crash database system to analyse accidents and use that to construct better and safer roads. 
• The project will also fund network expansion of basic and advanced life support ambulances and training first responder caregivers to road crash victims on the spot.
• The project will also incentivise the States to leverage private funding through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) concessions and pilot initiatives.