Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, on Monday, inaugurated Road Safety Month where he highlighted the central Government's commitment towards safety.

"Till now, we have been observing National Road Safety Week. But from today, we will observe National Road Safety Month. 70% of deaths are in the age group of 18-45 years," Nitin Gadkari said.

Gadkari also said that there is a need to save lives in the country where 415 people are dying every day due to road accidents.

"If we wait till 2030, 6-7 lakhs more people will die. So, we've made a commitment that before 2025, road accidents and deaths due to it will be brought down by 50% with help of people's participation," Gadkari added.

In 2020, the Central Government had participated in a conference in Sweden, where a vision was conceptualised - to have zero road fatalities in India by 2030, he said.

"We had promised to reduce such fatalities by 50%. Tamil Nadu has done it, with a success rate of 53%.," Gadkari stated.

Providing details of his ministry about an increased target of per day roads construction, Gadkari said, "We have achieved the target of constructing 30 kilometres of road, I believe that by the end of March, perhaps we will achieve the target of constructing 40 kilometres of road per day."

"World Bank and ADB (Asian Development Bank) approved two projects worth ?7,000 crore each. We'll receive approval from finance ministry soon. So, we'll spend ?14,000 crore to improve black spots - death traps - on roads," the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways added.

The event at Vigyan Bhavan was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union minister VK Singh and chief executive officer (CEO) of Niti Aayog Amitabh Kant.

Globally India is one of the worst-hit nations when it comes to road accidents. India accounts for about 5 lakh road accidents annually, one of the highest in the world, in which about 1.5 lakh people die and another 3 lakh become crippled.