Dr Subhamay Gangopadhyay, Programme Manager of IndiaRAP spoke to students and faculties as Guest of Honour in the opening ceremony of National Road Safety Month 2022 being celebrated by NSS IIT Roorkee.

He shared the dais with IIT Roorkee Director Prof Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi and Prof M. Parida.

Dr Gangopadhyay talked about IndiaRAP activities and mentioned how safe the roads assessed in India are in terms of Star Ratings and the safety treatments to improve safety and save lives. He mentioned the lack of good crash data in India and how the Star Rating, being a tool for proactive safety assessment, can work with very limited crash data. He also mentioned the role of road design engineers and planners for planning and designing forgiving roads.

Dr Gangopadhyay encouraged students to take up the benefit of various online iRAP training modules and the new IndiaRAP Learning Centre to support students in their academic and research projects.

Mr Ujjval Kumar, General Secretary NSS IIT Roorkee said Dr Gangopadhyay highlighted the seriousness of the road safety issue with examples that have had a massive impact on the students.

“He gave us the hope and confidence that Road Safety can be eradicated, just like polio. As aspiring engineers and technicians, Dr Gangopadhyay has truly motivated us to work towards the cause of Road Safety by working on the design of safer roads for the benefit and safety of pedestrians and vulnerable road users,” Mr Kumar said.