Delivered Extempore
ADDRESS BY SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, AT THE ALL INDIA MOTOR TRANSPORT CONGRESS
MARCH 29, 1995
Hon'ble Minister, Km. Selja, Mr. Vasant, President of the Congress, distinguished friends, ladies and gentlemen,
I am particularly happy to inaugurate the National Convention of the All India Motor Transport Congress. This is one of the most vital and vibrant sectors of our society and our economy. You know, how the civilisation of the world, its progress can be measured by the development of roads, transport and communications.
You have read about the Roman roads and even today in distant and different parts of the world, we can see the remnants of the immense network of roads that the Roman's built to rule their empire and to communicate within the empire.
India today, I am told, has the third largest network road system. It is a very big achievement for us but considering our size and the needs of our people, it is very inadequaqte indeed. Nearly 40% of our villages are not yet provided with all weather roads and the condition of roads are not also very adorable. I sympathise with the road transporters when they have to ply long distances by roads which are uneven, difficult and often not metalled or could be called modern roads. Therefore, I was very very happy to here from the report of your President, how you have decided to set up an institute for the training of truck drivers and I think other drivers also because the impact of the motor traffic on the general public is not always very pleasant for the public. Of course they enable transport of goods and ideas in our vast country and help the development of our economy. But the conditions of roads and conditions of driving are such that ours is one of the most accident afflicted countries in the world.
There are several reasons for it. But one of the important reasons for it is the lack of trained educated drivers, particularly truck drivers. One is surprised that it is only now that they are going to set up an institute for training truck drivers something which ought to have been done long ago. Nearly 40 or 42 % I am told, of the victims of careless driving are actually pedestrians, the ordinary people who walk on the footpaths of the roads of our country. Another 40 or even a greater per cent are cyclists, another big section of our have not community.
I need not therefore emphasise, the great importance of having an institute for training our drivers. It is not only training them but to give them and their families, facilities for education and other amenities of life so that they could be away from their homes for days and days while transporting goods from end of the country to another. I do hope as the Minister has promised some grant, I am sure, other concerned ministries also come forward with the funds to help this institute so that driving, especially truck driving in this country would not be very hazarduous business, but something that would contribute to life rather than destroy lives.
There is another aspect of motor transport which is equally important. It is impact of it on our environment. Nearly 80 % of the atmospheric pollution caused in this country, I am told, is caused by petrol driven vehicles. About 10 or 19 % of atmospheric pollution is caused of diesel driven vehicles. You can, therefore, understand how important it is to look after the environmental, and pollution aspect of motor transport. Roads are called the arteries of the nation. It is important that we do not choke these arteries by pollution. Therefore, I do hope that by having recourse to modern methods of pollution control and improved types of energy sources, you will be able to reduce the environmental damage caused by motor transport.
Accidents, I mentioned, are another most important consequence of driving.
To have air transport, railways, and other sophisticated systems you must have means of reaching every village. Somebody once said that the problem in communication is a problem of the last mile. You can go vast distances by air. I sometimes reflect my own experience. Travel from London to Bombay or Delhi by air. Then you may go by air to the nearest city in your home state, then you go by bus may be to another place nearer to home and finally because of the lack of road there may be a last mile or sometimes more than a last mile where you have no means of communciations, often you have to walk if you happen to come into a village. So we will have to solve this last mile problem in our country and that can be done by building network of all weather good roads in reaching to our lakhs of villages in our country.
I am told that you have a very high powered body, the Transport Development Council, I think, which considers the larger as well as the practical problems of transport problem in our country. I was told that there is a complaint by motorists that they are not sufficiently represented on this Council. May be you have resolved that problem. I have no doubt that the views, the problems of the motor transporters should be presented and heard in this high‑powered council, Transport Development Council. I hope that the authorities concerned would provide this facility.
You are having discussions for a day on a various aspects of the problem of road transport. As has been said the road transport has become more important than even rail transport in terms of goods and passengers carried. But ultimately, it seems to me that there is a proliferation of personal vehicles in our country. We read that new types of cars, new brands of passengers cars are being manufactured everyday. It is good, because we are a country which is advancing. Everybody would like to have a car. But sufficient attention, I think, is not paid to developing an efficient transportation system for the general public because if we consider that tomorrow everyone will be prosperous enough to own a car, that would be self‑defeating prosperity because we do not have enough roads to make these cars run and may be our environment would be completely destroyed by the poisonous emission of this personalised transportation system. Therefore it is absolutely important that we develop a viable, public transportation system in our country to meet the needs of our people.
These are all policy issues as well as issues of practice importance. I do hope that while you consider the welfare of the drivers, the truckers, which is the central problem because ultimately all these vehicles are managed and handled by human beings. It is his welfare and motivations and the encouragement and facilities that we give to the truckers and other drivers which would ultimately decide the effectiveness of our transport system.
May I end by thanking you for giving me this opportunity of meeting people from this important section of our society and I would like to wish you every success in the deliberations of this Convention.
Thank you
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