Our latest programme metrics are in and we congratulate our partners for achieving over 40,000km of road safety assessments across 14 states influencing the safety of USD$7 billion of road infrastructure investment, and training delivered to 12,000 engineers and road safety advocates.
Twice a year (in June and December), the global International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) analyses its global systems and consults with IndiaRAP to prepare a comprehensive analysis of partner activity across the country to make roads safer.
Informing the safety of road designs and upgrades
Across India, 39,890km of roads and designs have been Star Rated. This includes an additional 7,411km since January.
Making road designs safe before construction commences is a key priority. IndiaRAP is a member of the H7 Road Safety Committee of the Indian Roads Congress (IRC), the apex body for the development of design standards and guidelines for roads in the country. IndiaRAP partner Srinivasa Jampana of Louis Berger International – WSP is also one of 18 experts on iRAP’s Global Road Designers Consultation Group helping to test enhancements to the Star Rating for Designs (SR4D) web tool and inform activities to make road designs safer.
Under the Asian Development Bank-funded (ADB) “Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project (KSHIP-III)“, over 17,000km of roads are being assessed in Karnataka. The assessments are being conducted in two zones of the state by two consultant teams, each led by LEA Associates South Asia and Feedback Infra. Based on the Star Ratings and generated Safer Roads Investment Plans (SRIP), 1,500km in each zone will be prioritised for road safety improvement.
Over 7,000km of Himachal’s road network has also been Star Rated by the Asian Institute of Transport Development (AITD) under the World Bank-funded “Himachal Pradesh State Roads Transformation Project”. The Star Rating results and Safer Roads Investment Plan were shared in a recent stakeholder workshop and a road safety action plan is being prepared for the next 10 years.
Post construction assessments have been conducted by AITD and iRAP in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu covering about 500km of road length. With World Bank funding, the states’ highway networks were improved under the “Uttar Pradesh Core Road Network Development Project (UPCRNDP)” and “Tamil Nadu Road Sector Project (TNRSP)“.
The World Bank and ADB each announced USD$250 million in funding in June last year to support India’s Program for Strengthening Road Safety, an investment to be matched by the Government of India for a total $1 billion investment in road safety. We are delighted to be supporting this initiative.
Helping to make school journeys safer
Making school journeys safer for vulnerable youth is a programme priority and India now ranks third in the world for the number of schools assessed using the Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) tools, behind Vietnam (214 schools assessed) and The Philippines (109). 103 schools have been Star Rated in India, including 9 schools in the last six months, informing evidence-based infrastructure upgrades.
India is benefiting from global improvements to the SR4S tools with: enhancements launched to the SR4S model integrating the latest research and user experience for improved results; updates to the SR4S mobile app with availability now on Google Play and the Apple Store; and the launch and integration of the Youth Engagement App (YEA) as part of the Botnar Ai&Me project to capture supplementary youth perceptions of risk.
Building capacity for safe roads
Road safety capacity has grown substantially in India with 8,669 people trained at events delivered within the country and 3,267 receiving global/online training in the iRAP Methodology and tools.
The IndiaRAP team is currently participating in the delivery of iRAP training to road engineers in partnership with the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Roorkee and Delhi), and National Institute of Technology (NIT) Jaipur.
Various research and educational institutes are delivering 15-day certificate road safety audit trainings approved by the IRC.
IndiaRAP’s innovative Learning Centre is also supporting engineers, researchers and students undertaking academic road safety studies using the iRAP Methodology.
To see iRAP training opportunities, including the recently launched #RAPKnowledgeLIVE sessions visit https://irap.org/training/, with many courses available in online, self-paced format.
Delivering to the iRAP global standard in India
India ranks second in the world for iRAP Accreditation, behind Brazil. 32 practitioners are iRAP Accredited to deliver iRAP specification services to the global standard, including four new practitioners this period. See India’s accredited practitioners at https://irap.org/accreditation/.
1,545 engineers are using the ViDA global software to analyse the safety of India’s road infrastructure and prepare strategic investment plans to eliminate high-risk road sections for road users (122 new users since January). ViDA has recently been enhanced with an extra set of urban countermeasures thanks to a project by the United Kingdom’s Road Safety Foundation, funded by The Road Safety Trust.
Supporting the innovation of global tools for local needs
The global iRAP Innovation Framework is supporting 111 partners in projects and initiatives to create the global and local tools to meet local needs and ensure continuous improvement of the iRAP offering. IndiaRAP partners are benefiting from these partnerships. The iRAP Safety Insights Explorer includes new iRAP Star Rating and key performance metrics, new estimates of the types of road crash injuries that occur in India that can be split by age group and sex, and new regional filters, including for UNICEF and Road Safety Observatory regions. Lots of activity has occurred in the area of safe cycling and light mobility. Four trusted suppliers are now in place to support CycleRAP projects and the CycleRAP Demonstrator tool has recently launched to support the quick assessment of cycling infrastructure safety.
Partnerships for impact
The IndiaRAP community continues to grow month by month, with 4,063 people from 861 organisations across India working together. This includes 66 new organisations in the last six months alone.
IndiaRAP Technical Manager Jigesh Bhavsar said, “We regularly review the IndiaRAP programme to measure and share the success of what we and our partners are doing. The results are awe-inspiring. With the support of our host AITD, major donor FIA Foundation and Founding Sponsor FedEx, we are working together to implement the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 to halve road deaths and serious injuries in India by 2030.”
IndiaRAP is the local programme of iRAP, a global charity with a vision for a world free of high-risk roads. iRAP and its partners have now undertaken road infrastructure assessments in 128 countries and influenced safety in 174 countries (90%) of the world. iRAP works with local RAPs, governments, development banks, mobility clubs, industry, research organisations and road safety NGOs to provide them with the free global methodology, tools, training and support to make their roads safer. Worldwide, iRAP and its partners have influenced the safety of over USD$100 billion dollars of infrastructure investment, Star Rated 1.5 million kilometres of roads and designs, plus 1,229 schools, Risk Mapped 1.8 million kilometres, trained over 63,000 people and accredited 241 practitioners. iRAP is also the umbrella programme for ChinaRAP, AusRAP, usRAP, KiwiRAP, BrazilRAP, South Africa RAP, ThaiRAP, TanRAP, United Kingdom RAP and MyRAP.
iRAP CEO Rob McInerney said, “We can create a world free of high-risk roads together. The life-saving impact of our IndiaRAP partners, and those around the world in the last 6 months alone, is inspirational and shows what is possible. Road upgrades are saving lives by the thousands, and we can all be proud of that life-saving success.”
