Haryana Vision Zero to shut operations due to lack of funds

The Haryana Vision Zero (HVZ), a road safety programme launched in May 2017 to achieve zero road fatalities across the state, has decided to end its operations on

The Haryana Vision Zero (HVZ), a road safety programme launched in May 2017 to achieve zero road fatalities across the state, has decided to end its operations on May 30, citing lack of funds caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Every year, HVZ would receive a cumulative funding of Rs 3 crore from Honda company and Nagarro as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds.

The next batch of funding was to be initiated on May 1 this year, but HVZ officials said that further funding from the two companies was hindered due to the coronavirus outbreak, as a result of which their organisation has to be closed down.

When asked, Manas Fuloria, chief executive officer of Nagarro, said, “The funding came up for renewal just when the Covid-19 crisis had started. The economic slowdown plus the uncertainty of when things will return to normal and the programme could restart led us to not renew our commitment. We will be happy to look at it in another avatar, maybe focused on Gurugram this time. Nagarro did not support the programme only monetarily, but also with our time, office space for holding HVZ training sessions, and with some IT and project management.”

Representatives from Honda did not respond to requests for comment.

The HVZ officials said that they are looking at restarting the programme in the future, but at a smaller scale that will solely focus on the aspect of road safety in the Gurugram district.

“We tried our best to continue with the initiative for as long as we could. We will look back at this three-year period with pride as it brought down fatality rates across all parts of Haryana and above all saved lives. We will plan to see how we can reintroduce HVZ in some form or the other in coming time. In the meanwhile, we will continue supporting the state government in implementing the recommendations of the HVZ programme,” said Sarika Panda Bhatt, programme coordinator, HVZ.

HVZ commenced operations in May 2017, after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Haryana government. It is loosely based on the principles of the in Sweden’s Vision Zero programme which commenced operations in 1997.

Initially, HVZ started with only 10 districts of Haryana and in 2018 expanded to cover all 22 districts in the state.

With a team of 27 road safety experts, HVZ audited roads across the state to determine accident-prone stretches, black spots, and engineering defects that were all contributing towards road fatalities.

Their audit reports, along with suggestions for executing engineering or infrastructure changes, were subsequently shared during district road safety meetings across all 22 districts in the state in the presence of various stockholders, such as Haryana police, public works department, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), local municipal corporations, and other local agencies for implementation.

During its three-year tenure, the total number of road fatalities recorded in Haryana was 5,390 in 2017, 5,356 in 2018, and 5,125 in 2019. Similarly, for Gurugram, the total number of road fatalities was 484 in 2017, 469 in 2018, and 401 in 2019.

Additional director general of police (ADGP), law and order, Navdeep Singh Virk, declined to comment on the matter stating that “this was not a police matter and rather was a government issue”.

However, the Haryana transport minister, Mool Chand Sharma, said, “We have already asked for a file on HVZ to review its work and see which suggestions of theirs can be implemented in each district. We extend support to all road safety programmes engaged with the state government, especially to those that are making a difference on-ground.”