Road Safety Takes Centre Stage at SAFE Convention in Gujarat
Gandhinagar Road Safety Convention Puts Data, Enforcement and Public Behaviour Under Focus
India recorded 1,77,177 road accident deaths in 2024, according to data placed before the Lok Sabha, making road safety a continuing concern for governments, vehicle makers, police and road users. Against this backdrop, the 27th SAFE Annual Convention was held in Gandhinagar on Friday, bringing officials, automobile companies, researchers and road safety specialists together for discussions on safer roads.
The convention was organised by the Society for Automotive Fitness & Environment (SAFE), an initiative of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), in association with the Transport Department and Gujarat Road Safety Authority, Government of Gujarat. It was held at the Hotel Taj Gandhinagar and focused on the theme, ‘Safe Journey: A Collective Journey Towards Safety with Responsibility’. SIAM’s records confirm the event and its date and location.
The scale of India’s road safety problem gives the discussion added weight. Government figures show that road deaths rose from 1,68,491 in 2022 to 1,72,890 in 2023 and 1,77,177 in 2024. The 2024 figure includes West Bengal data taken from the electronic Detailed Accident Report system, or eDAR.
At the Gandhinagar meeting, Pravin Gordhanji Mali, Minister of State for Forests and Environment, Climate Change and Transport, Government of Gujarat, called for greater attention to public behaviour on roads.
“Building a culture of respect on our roads is essential if we want to reduce fatalities and make mobility safer. Awareness, behaviour and civic sense are just as important as technology in improving road safety.”
Mali was the chief guest. P R Patelia, Secretary, Roads & Buildings Department, Government of Gujarat, and Satish Patel, IAS (Retd.), Commissioner, Gujarat Road Safety Authority, were among the guests of honour. Gujarat government records list Patelia as secretary of the Roads and Buildings Department, while a Gujarat Police list identifies Sahitya V, IPS, as Superintendent of Police, State Traffic Branch-1, Gandhinagar.
Patelia pointed to the difficulty created by India’s mixed traffic. “In India, we have seven or eight different categories of vehicles on roads impacting the traffic mix, along with many other road users. The more innovative solutions we develop by brainstorming, the better equipped we will be to address our road safety challenges.”
Satish Patel said road safety requires sustained work. “Road safety is a major challenge. It is a battle that we must fight, and we must continue fighting it. If all of us work together, put in the effort, and dedicate ourselves to this cause, we can make a real difference.”
Sahitya V said attention also needs to extend beyond people inside vehicles. “Road safety is 25% about driver safety and 75% about the people who are on the road. We are currently focusing on driver safety. We need to develop technology to ensure people outside the vehicle is also protected.”
The convention’s opening session dealt with a systems approach to road safety in India. A SIAM-SAFE context paper titled “Analysing India’s Imperatives for Road Safety” was released during the meeting. SIAM has published earlier editions of the paper, including a 2023 version, and its 2026 road safety work has continued to examine road safety through policy, infrastructure, enforcement, education, emergency care and data.
Two new projects were also announced. These include the HMSI-Gujarat Road Safety Authority Road Safety Project in Ahmedabad and the NID-Gujarat Road Safety Authority Road Safety Awareness Project in Gandhinagar.
Twelve Road Safety Warriors of Gujarat were honoured during the convention for their work related to road safety.
The event also included a Sustainable Mobility Expo, with 10 vehicles from major automobile manufacturers and a VECV eye check-up van. Participating companies included Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, TVS, Mahindra & Mahindra, Skoda, Ashok Leyland/Switch, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. and VE Commercial Vehicles. The display covered two-wheelers, three-wheelers, passenger cars and commercial vehicles.
For SAFE, such work forms part of a longer programme. The organisation says its activities include vehicle inspection clinics, training programmes, road safety education and discussions with state governments and other groups. SAFE was created by SIAM to work on vehicle fitness, emissions and road safety.
The convention also examined how enforcement can make better use of information. The session titled ‘Enforcement & Evaluation: Data-Driven Enforcement and Measurable Accountability in Road Safety Governance’ was moderated by Ashim Sharma, Senior Partner & Group Head, NRI, and chaired by Bhagwan K. Bindiganavile, Treasurer, SAFE and Executive Vice President, VE Commercial Vehicles.
Speakers included J J Chaudhari, Deputy Director, Transport Department, Government of Gujarat; Amrit Choudhary, CEO and Founder, Parking Bot; and Sudershan S. Gusain, Chairman, Tyre Safety Awareness Group, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association.
The panel included G S Malik, IPS, DG and Inspector General of Police, Government of Gujarat; Satish Patel; Ramashankar Pandey, CEO, Work with Dignity Foundation and Chairperson, BARS; and Murtuza Shabbir Painter, Project Head, RASSI/JPRI.
Malik said data and artificial intelligence should be used in both enforcement and road planning. “Every step that we take in this AI-enabled ecosystem should be grounded in data, and every improvement should be visible on our roads. Data and artificial intelligence should be used not only for enforcement but also for better planning. Gujarat has upscaled its enforcement multi-fold in the past 2 years and thus demonstrated the possibilities of its application.”
The convention’s ‘5Es, One Mission: Safer Roads, Safer Lives’ discussion examined Education, Engineering, Enforcement, Emergency Care and Evaluation. The session was moderated by Latika Taneja, Head of Corporate Communications, Corporate Affairs & CSR, Hero MotoCorp Ltd., with Professor Siddartha Khastgir, Head of Safe Autonomy, WMG, University of Warwick, UK, and Dr Subroto Das, Founder, CEO & Managing Trustee, Lifeline Foundation.
The second thematic session, ‘Education & Engineering: Behavioural Education and Technology Interventions for Safer Roads’, brought together speakers from automobile companies, government bodies, academia and research institutions.
Participants included Samved Patil, Partner, Grant Thornton; Dilip Shrivastava, Head of Mechatronics, Product Engineering, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt. Ltd.; Jimit Raval, Director & Co-Founder, Nexgits Pvt. Ltd.; Ravi J. Nirmal, Secretary, GSRTC; Jitendra Singh Rajput, Dean, Gandhinagar Campus, NID and CEO-In-Charge, NDBI; Mukti Advani, Senior Principal Scientist, CRRI; and Yashpal Sachar, Senior Vice President, Ashok Leyland Ltd.
Atanu Ganguli, Executive Director-Technical, SIAM, summed up one of the central points of the discussions: “The safest vehicle is not a substitute for the safest road, and the safest road cannot compensate indefinitely for unsafe behaviour. We need all three.”
The wider numbers explain why such discussions remain relevant. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways reported 4,80,583 road accidents in 2023, with 1,72,890 deaths and 4,62,825 injuries. India has also committed to the Stockholm Declaration target of reducing road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% by 2030.
The Gandhinagar convention therefore placed road safety within a wider discussion about how roads are designed, how vehicles and drivers are regulated, how crashes are recorded, how emergency help reaches victims and how people behave once they enter a road. For motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, riders and public transport users, the outcome of these measures will ultimately be judged where it matters most: on India’s roads.
