FedEx Express has decided to support a road safety programme, India Road Assessment Programme (IndiaRAP), which will focus on lowering accidents.

IndiaRAP teams have so far undertaken the star rating assessment of over 10,000km of roads across various States in India.

The International Road Assessment Programme (IRAP), which will be hosted by Asian Institute of Transport Development (AITD), will build on a series of road assessment programmes that have already been undertaken by IndiaRAP.

IndiaRAP will seek to eliminate one- and two-star roads that are unsafe to become a leader in promoting the design and construction of five-star smart roads in the country, said Rob Mclerney, CEO, IRAP, an NGO that has developed the rating tool.

There are some low-cost solutions that help prevent crashes on highways such as red and white reflective strips that cost one dollar. IRAP is one of the many tools that can be used to identify high-risk areas from an accident perspective.

Every additional star improves road safety by halving the number and severity of road accidents, according to McLearney, who encouraged the use of IRAP tools. China, which started the rating of over 100,000 km of roads in 2015, has embarked on upgrading the rating of its roads, apart from helping others, according to IRAP.

Child safety FedEx Express, which has Safety Above All as a core motive, runs several road safety programmes globally, including a child pedestrian safety programme. This programme has been conducted in over 250 US cities and nine countries including India. In India, it has covered almost 2,750 schools schools since 2007, said Hemant Pimplikar, Managing Director, Sales, FedEx-India.

Fedex has 1,000 motorised vehicles in India and uses road and driver safety as one of the parameters while deciding the routes to be taken by its drivers, said Pimplikar.

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