Setting an appropriate Star Rating policy target at the national and project level gives an opportunity to achieve measurable road safety outcome. The UN Target-3 and Target-4 recommends adopting such targets to systematically reduce the road trauma. The Star Rating targets set by international financial institutions such as given below helps to optimize the road designs, and setting appropriate speed limits.
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recommends that roads carrying more than 50,000 vehicles a day should be minimum 4-star and roads through linear settlements should be 4-star for pedestrians.
- The World Bank and GRSF helped pilot test the star rating and investment planning tools and is working with governments in India to specify minimum 3-star targets in local loan projects.
IndiaRAP is helping the government to set and achieve such policy targets. The road assessments conducted in partnership with the State Governments and MoRTH, involved the process of maximizing the road length achieving 3-star or better. Under such projects the project preparation and detailed design including road safety features were carried out by design consultants appointed by the government. The Star Ratings and Safer Roads Investment Plan prepared before design and construction stage helped the design team to adopt safety countermeasures that suits the site conditions. The Star Rating of design provided opportunity to further improve the road designs by adding economically viable safety treatments in the designs.
Safe Demonstration Corridor Project (SCDP) under World Bank funded Second Gujarat State Highway Project (GSHP-II) and Second Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project (KSHIP-II) included 3-star or better criteria. The SCDP in Karnataka (SH-20) was developed to achieve 3-star or better rating and demonstrated 50% reduction in number of road deaths after improvement. Two more SCDPs are under development in Gujarat.
