Parliament Question: Cashless treatment for road accident victims

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO - 4240 ANSWERED ON - 01/04//2026 CASHLESS TREATMENT FOR ROAD ACCIDENT VICTIMS

4240. SHRI BABUBHAI JESANGBHAI DESAI:

Will the Minister of ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS be pleased to state:

(a) whether Government has implemented the Cashless Treatment Scheme for Road Accident Victims, notified in 2025, across the country to ensure immediate medical assistance to accident victims without financial constraints;

(b) if so, the details thereof, regarding reduction in fatalities during the "Golden Hour" on National Highways including Gujarat and Maharashtra;

(c) the number of identified road accident "black spots" on NH that have been rectified during the last three years and whether road safety measures are being aligned with the standards of the International Road Assessment Programme; and

(d) whether Al is proposed to be integrated in FASTag 2.0 for barrier-less tolling and improved traffic management? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS (SHRI NITIN JAIRAM GADKARI)

(a) & (b) In accordance with the legal mandate under Section 162 of the Motor Vehicles Act (MV Act), 1988, “Prime Minister -Road Accident Victims’ Hospitalisation and Assured Treatment (PM-RAHAT) Scheme” has been notified and comprehensive guidelines detailing the process flow, roles and responsibilities of respective stakeholders, and the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for its implementation have been issued. The scheme has been launched nation-wide on 13.02.2026 after onboarding States/UTs on the digital platform except the State of West Bengal. The necessary steps for implementation of the scheme are yet to be completed by State of West Bengal. As the scheme has been launched nation-wide recently including the States of Gujarat and Maharashtra, it is too early to assess its efficacy in terms of reduction in fatalities during the “Golden Hour”. The salient features of the

scheme are as under:

(i) Treatment cover upto ₹1.5 lakh per victim will be provided, subject to a maximum cap of 7 days from date of accident on any category of road. The treatment cover will be available to all those victims who are involved in road accidents caused by use of motor vehicles.

(ii) Every road accident victim shall be provided with stabilization treatment for up to 24 hours in non-life-threatening cases and up to 48 hours in life-threatening cases at designated hospitals, subject to police response.(iii) This statutory scheme will take precedence over any other central / state level schemes.

(iv) The scheme has been successfully implemented through the amalgamation of two existing platforms –eDAR (Electronic Detailed Accident Report) used by police officials for reporting of accidents and TMS 2.0 (Transaction Management System) of National Health Authority (NHA) used by hospitals for treatment, claim submissions and processing of payments.

(v) The reimbursement to hospitals is being done through Motor Vehicle Accident Fund

(MVAF) which is funded through contributions from General Insurance companies for cases where the offending motor vehicle is insured and through budgetary support for uninsured and hit & run cases.

Through integration with the 112 Emergency Response Support System (ERSS), the victim or Good Samaritan (RAH-VEER) can obtain necessary information regarding the nearest designated hospital, request an ambulance, or both, as per the situation's requirements. As soon as the victim is admitted, treatment process will have to be initiated based on the Health Benefit Packages developed by NHA. In parallel, while initiating the treatment, police authentication of the victim will have to be initiated in the TMS platform. The hospital would generate the treatment ID(s) on TMS and push it to the district police through eDAR. The time available with police for responding on eDAR shall be upto 24 hours, or 48 hours in life threatening situations as decided by the hospital administrator.

(c) Rectification of black spots is a continuous process and temporary measures are taken on immediate basis. Out of total 16,542 blackspots identified on National Highways (NHs) in the country, short-term rectification has been completed on 14,138 black spots. Long-term rectification measures, as recommended by road safety audit reports, are implemented only at locations deemed necessary. Accordingly, long-term measures have been completed at 6,649 black spots, while 4,077 black spots have been assessed as not requiring such long-term interventions. The details are attached as Annexure-A.

All National Highway (NH) works are carried out as per standards, guidelines, manual, code of practice of Indian Roads Congress as well as specifications for Road and Bridge Works.

Necessary road safety measures are taken during design, construction, operation and maintenance stages. Further, Guidelines have been issued for regular safety audit of all NHs at design, construction, pre-opening stage of NH projects as well as on existing NHs for ensuring road safety.

(d) In the efforts to enhance toll operations and enable seamless movement of vehicles, the Government has decided to implement Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) Electronic Toll Collection system, which facilitates barrier-free tolling using integrated technologies including Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) with Artificial Intelligence analytics and high performance Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) -based Electronic Toll Collection (FASTag), where the user fee shall be charged from the vehicle users without halting at the toll plaza for the purpose.ANNEXURE-A ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (c) OF THE RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4240 FOR ANSWER ON 01.04.2026 ASKED BY SHRI BABUBHAI JESANGBHAI DESAI REGARDING CASHLESS TREATMENT FOR ROAD ACCIDENT VICTIMS.

Short-term Rectification Long-term Rectification States/UTs Blackspots Completed Completed Gujarat 386 386 168 Odisha 597 582 378 Tamil Nadu 1661 1633 613 Maharashtra 550 534 267 West Bengal 1339 1322 803 Delhi 335 335 181 Jharkhand 279 279 120 Karnataka 1278 1220 701 Kerala 701 599 123 Goa 50 40 26 Andhra Pradesh 1060 787 343 Telangana 1535 1259 516 Bihar 306 291 64 Assam 285 252 77 Mizoram 1 1 1 Meghalaya 56 36 23 Nagaland 71 50 64 Sikkim 16 16 16 Manipur 19 14 14 Tripura 29 21 12 Arunachal Pradesh 9 9 0 Uttarakhand 110 107 80 Punjab 1407 1112 463Haryana 124 121 58 Chandigarh 7 7 0 Madhya Pradesh 596 590 225 Uttar Pradesh 2210 1067 540 UT of J&K & UT of 224 170 62 Ladakh Himachal Pradesh 232 232 199 Chhattisgarh 338 337 245 Rajasthan 727 727 265 Andaman & Nicobar 4 2 2 *****