Ola sets up ‘Safety Council’ for road safety in India
Ola on Wednesday announced that it has set up a Safety Council that will work towards strengthening the safety of the mobility ecosystem in India. The homegrown ride-hailing app in a press release stated that this council will act as a catalyst that supports the government agenda to cut road accident deaths by half by 2020.
The member organisations of the council include - Indian Road Safety Campaign, Road Safety Arm of Solve, represented by Amar Srivastava, Founder-President, Centre for Social Research, represented by Dr Ranjana Kumar, Director.
The individual members of the council include the World Resources Institute (WRI), India, Head, Dr OP Agarwal, Former Director General of Police (DGP), Maharashtra, Dr Parvinder Singh Pasricha and GVK EMRI, Emergency Medicine Learning Centre (EMLC) & Research Director Dr GV Ramana Rao.
They also aim to work with different organisations and individuals from various sectors - urban transport, women’s safety, security management, climate change, traffic management and emergency services.
The focus will be on strengthened road safety management capacities, improved safety of road infrastructure and broader transport networks, enhanced safety of vehicles, improved behaviour of road users, and improved post-crash care.
Ola’s Safety Council will adopt a multi-functional approach that galvanises public private partnerships along the five pillars of the ‘United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety.’
It also aims to lend support to three key targets by 2020 - eye checkups, gender sensitisation training both, targeted at one million driver partners. In-addition, it is also looking at first responder training certification for over one lakh driver partners.
Nitesh Prakash, Senior Operations - Ola, said that the council will further strengthen the safety ecosystem in the country. “The intent is to galvanise public-private partnership through multi-stakeholder approach, bringing measurable impact,” said Nitesh.
Aligned on the vision to create a safe, inclusive, and sustainable mobility by building and maintaining safety of the mobility ecosystem, Ola Safety Council will bring together members’ knowledge, data, technology, and local networks and will focus on areas that will make the greatest impact.
The council will also work alongside policy makers, state transport authorities, traffic police departments, and other relevant stakeholders to create solutions that enhance ride and road safety on Ola as well as the ecosystem at large.