The Hindu : New Delhi News : Baalu for upgrading driving skills

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Thursday, Sep 21, 2006
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New Delhi

Baalu for upgrading driving skills

Special Correspondent

"Imperative to have public-private partnership in training programmes"

NEW DELHI: Union Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Minister T. R. Baalu on Wednesday said there is considerable scope for public-private partnership in the field of drivers training and their skill upgrading and asked the automobile manufacturers including other stakeholders to join the Government's efforts in this direction.

Inaugurating the Driver Training School and Transport Management Institute in Greater Noida near here, he said the All India Motor Transport Congress had set a very good example of public-private partnership by setting up this school. "More of them should be set up in the same way as the efforts of the Government alone may not be sufficient."

Stating that road safety was one of the top-most priorities of the Government, Mr. Baalu said "a driver is an important component in the road traffic system and better standards of road safety cannot be achieved without enhancing the drivers' capability to drive safely".

Pointing out that the training of drivers had remained unorganised in India, the Minister said there had always been lack of standardised institutions for drivers' training. "Though of late some good training institutions for drivers have also emerged, lack of resources comes in the way of developing and training the drivers adequately," he observed.

India is ranked third in the world in terms of largest motor vehicle population, with about 7 crore vehicles and a decadal growth of 7 to 8 per cent per annum and the situation had resulted in ranking India second in the world in terms of number of road accidents, the Minister said.

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