Accident deaths on national highways this year appear to be on track to exceed the previous year’s figure, shows data tabled by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
According to the data, 29,018 people died on national highways in the first six months of this year — this is more than 50% of the total fatalities of last year.
National highways in India account for over 30% of road accident deaths, even though they comprise only 2% of the total road network.
The data shows 67,933 accidents took place on national highways up to June 2025.
In 2024, 53,090 people died in 1,25,873 accidents across national highways. In 2023, 53,630 people died in 1,23,955 accidents.
The data is based on information sent by states and Union Territories to the Electronic Detailed Accident Report (eDAR) portal — a central repository for reporting, managing and analysing road accident data.
The total number of road accident deaths in 2023 was more than 1.72 lakh. The Union government has set an ambitious target to halve such deaths by 2030.
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Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said the ministry is undertaking both short-term and long-term remedial measures to reduce such deaths. These include road markings, signage installations, crash barriers, raised pavement markers, geometric improvements, junction redesigns, spot widening of carriageways and construction of underpasses or overpasses, among other measures.
“In new NH projects on high density and high speed corridors of NHAI, installation of ATMS (Advanced Traffic Management System) is generally a part of the project. Further, ATMS is also implemented as standalone projects in already constructed important corridors. ATMS has provisions for various electronic enforcement devices which help in speedy identification of incidents on the highway stretches and effectively monitor the highways, thereby improving the response time of the on-site assistance,” said Gadkari while responding to a question by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya.
The government has identified road engineering as one of the biggest factors of accident deaths.
Over the last few months, Gadkari himself has been critical about consultants involved in road designing and construction. In a speech in March, he said road accidents and fatalities in India are increasing because of poor civil engineers, consultants, concessionaires and substandard detailed project reports (DPRs).
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The ministry recently initiated a process to change the selection parameters for consultants for the preparation of DPRs.
Highway danger
Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
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