Fatalities Due To Accidents On National Highways Decline In 2025 For First Time Since Covid

Fatalities due to accidents on national highways reduced for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of such deaths falling by 4% to 62,122 in 2025, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that accident fatalities on national highways were 64,772 and 63,112 in 2024 and 2023, respectively.

In 2025, the number of road accidents went up by 5.30% to over 5.13 lakh, resulting in deaths of 21 persons every hour.

A total of 5,13,563 road accidents have been reported by police departments of states and Union Territories across the country during the calendar year 2025, claiming 1,83,382 lives, Gadkari said.

While the total number of road accidents on NHs in 2025 was at 1,43,526, the figure stood at 77,234 this year as on July 27, the minister said.

Amongst states, Tamil Nadu reported the highest number of accidents at 71,387, whereas Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of accident fatalities at 27,550 in 2025.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is primarily responsible for the development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs).

Responding to another question, Gadkari said that certain stretches on National Highways (NHs) have been identified as black spots, i.e., locations with a certain number of accidents involving fatalities and grievous injuries.

"These stretches have been identified on real-time basis through AI based tools developed by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur," Gadkari said, adding that based on the available accident data from Electronic Detailed Accident Report (e- DAR) for the 2023–2025 period, 6,358 black spot corridors have been identified.

Responding to a separate question, Gadkari said, at present, 1,191 NH projects totalling 25,917 km in length costing ₹7.15 lakh crore are under construction in the country.

He further said that the government has envisaged the deployment of Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS) with the objective of improving road safety and reducing accidents on NHs.

ATMS has provisions for various electronic enforcement devices, which help in speedy identification of incidents (including traffic violations) on highway stretches and effectively monitor highways, thereby improving incident response time and road safety.

"Accordingly, the government has approved ATMS implementation in 531 km length and process has been initiated for approval in another 6,000 km," the minister said.

Responding to another query, Gadkari said as on July 31, a total of 70,495 commercial vehicles and 3,96,486 passenger (private) vehicles have been scrapped at Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities (RVSFs).

Under the Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Programme (VVMP), a network of RVSFs is being established for environment-friendly scrapping/disposal of vehicles.

The minister said as of July 31, 153 RVSFs are operational in 23 states/UTs.

Replying to another question, Gadkari said all the bridges/overbridges/fly overs/ viaducts on National Highways are inspected by the concerned executing agencies, i.e., National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Public Works Department (PWD), National Highways Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) from time to time for early identification of distress, if any.

"471 numbers of bridges have been identified with local distresses," he said, adding that out of these, remedial measures have been completed in 159 bridges and the remedial measures on the remaining 312 bridges are targeted for completion by December 2028.