A Mechanism for Generation of Road Safety Fund

Additional Fund Requirement

There was an increase in the investment made in London after 2001. The cumulative of increased investment per lakh population from 2000 to 2005
comes to be around 1.03 million GBP. This increase in funding resulted in a reduction of 97.03 KSI (Killed or Seriously Injured) per lakh population during this period. Using this relation, the cost to reduce one fatality or serious injury has been worked.

Cost for reduction of 1 fatality or serious injury in UK
= GBP 10,660 (2005 rates)
= USD 14,214 (2005 rates)

As the cost of road safety activities in London is different from that in India, a conversion factor has been considered. A factor 0.45 derived from the comparison of construction cost of unit length of road in the UK and India has been used to convert cost in UK to cost in India.

Cost for reduction of 1 fatality in India = USD 6,396 (2005 rates)

This is converted to present cost by considering the past inflation rates. This results in a cost of reduction of 1 fatality or serious injury to the term of USD 12,263 (2014 rates)

The cost for reduction of one fatality or serious injury derived above is used to find out the total investment required to reduce 1% of fatality and serious injury. A reduction of 1 % equates to a reduction of 462 fatality and serious injury in absolute numbers. It requires a total additional fund of USD 5.7 million. (i.e. 462 x USD 12,263 = USD 5.7 million)

The mechanisms are developed keeping a view of reducing at least 3% of fatalities and serious injuries in the state.

Mechanisms for Fund Generation in Kerala

In order to generate fund to achieve the above target different mechanisms can be used. Presented below are few mechanisms considered for fund generation. These mechanisms are mainly focusing on beneficiaries and users for fund generation.

• Insurance levies or a share from insurance premium collected
• Increased one time cess collected during vehicle registration
• Special tax for road safety on fuel so that it is dependent on usage
• Increased traffic fines from offenders
• Part of driver licensing fee
• Also, grants from central Government for the improvement of National Highways have been considered