India’s roads will benefit from a new safety programme, which will share knowledge globally - image courtesy of Pat Smith
A new plan is being established that will help to boost road safety in India and cut the country’s casualty rate.
The programme is being organised by iRAP and involves a novel 5-Star Global Connections Initiative. This is being sponsored by FedEx Express and is hoped to set up new partnerships across India. The programme will also share success across the more than 100 countries that have their own RAP programmes.
According to iRAP global programme manager, Judy Williams, "The initiative beautifully connects FedEx’s mission of 'connecting people and possibilities', iRAP’s vision for a world free of high-risk roads and IndiaRAP’s life-saving success. 5-Star Global Connections will be a gamechanger for the charity’s impact and see first results delivered in the Pilot country of India, where 17 deaths occur on the roads every hour."
The initiative includes four phases. The first is for the development of iRAP Connect, a global Partner Management System to store and track programme and partner success across more than 100 countries and 14,000 partners. The second is for the development of a 5-Star Global Connections Strategy that utilises the system and its data wisdoms to connect people and resources for high impact local RAPs. Using the new global system, piloting of the 5-Star Connections Strategy in India with a focus on supporting all of the government and industry partners across the country and celebrating and promoting success in conjunction with local FedEx teams. And finally, there will be the development of a Celebrating Success Package that supports projects across India that achieve the UN Global Targets for 3-star and better roads as a framework for other countries to follow.
Jack Muhs, regional president, FedEx Express said, “We’re proud to support this important road safety initiative. It is estimated by the World Health Organisation that by 2030, road traffic crashes will cause more fatalities than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and, at FedEx, we believe we can help change these outcomes with our focus on connecting people and possibilities. The FedEx support for the 5-Star Global Connections initiative of iRAP and the local FedEx Express support for IndiaRAP will help unite partners striving to make roads safer and save lives.”
IndiaRAP programme manager Dr Subhamay Gangopadhyay said, “This is an exciting initiative for our country. FedEx Express has provided vital support for the IndiaRAP programme launched three years ago to eliminate 1 and 2-star unsafe roads in the country. Over 21,000km of high-risk roads have been assessed across 14 states, informing over US$5.6 billion in upgrade investments. Over 3,300 engineers have been trained. We look forward to the programme impacts and partnerships that the 5-Star Connections will make.”
Williams commented that the development of iRAP 5-Star Global Connections is already well underway connecting our countries with partners, activities, projects, road assessments and upgrades, metrics, training and accreditation activities, knowledge and news.
"The system is providing wisdom and shared success from data – a holistic start-to-end view of the connections that are making a difference to eliminate high-risk roads – and most importantly the possibilities for progress, which in real terms is families getting safely home. iRAP Connect would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of FedEx, pro-bono initial build support of Barhead and recent technical assistance of NTT (Microsoft Partners)," Williams said.
