The is planning to enact the Odisha Road Safety Act and appoint a senior Ias or Ips officer to exclusively look after road safety issues.
In a recent meeting chaired by development commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena, the government asked the commerce and transport department to explore the feasibility of formulating the Road Safety Act. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat have already enacted it. Besides, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have also appointed road safety commissioners. The creation of a road safety commissionerate or directorate in Odisha has been under consideration for quite some time.
The development assumes significance in the wake of road fatalities having increased by 21% from 2014 (3,931 deaths) to 4,738 deaths in 2019 despite The Supreme Court committee on road safetys direction to bring down the accident deaths by 50% by 2020. The fatality rate (death per 100 accidents) is about 48.2% in Odisha as compared to the national Average of 36.6%.