Parliament Question: Cashless treatment of road accident victims

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO - 2983 ANSWERED ON - 18/03/2026 CASHLESS TREATMENT OF ROAD ACCIDENT VICTIMS 2983 Shri Surendra Singh Nagar: Shri Mithlesh Kumar: Shri Amar Pal Maurya: Shri Rajib Bhattacharjee: Dr. Parmar Jashvantsinh Salamsinh: Dr. Bhagwat Karad: Shri Narayana Koragappa: Shri Subhash Barala: Will the Minister of ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS be pleased to state: (a) the implementation outcome data of the "Cashless Treatment of Road Accident Victims" Programme notified in the year 2025, particularly with reference to reduction in mortality rate during the "golden hour" on all national highways; (b) the number of "black spots" rectified on national highways during the last three years and the progress of mandatory "star rating" of roads as per the global International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) standards; and (c) the initiatives taken for integration of Artificial Intelligence in national highway toll plazas (FASTag 2.0) to enable barrier-free tolling and reduce congestion at entry points? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS (SHRI NITIN JAIRAM GADKARI) (a) 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. As the scheme has been launched recently after completion of all technicalrequirements, it is too early to assess its efficacy in terms of reduction in mortality rate 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. (b) 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 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.(c) In effort 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 having to stop, slow down or stay in a given fee plaza lane. The details of fee plazas for which Request for Proposal (RFP) for implementation of MLFF has been finalised for implementation of barrier free tolling is attached as Annexure-B.ANNEXURE-A ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (b) OF THE RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2983 FOR ANSWER ON 18.03.2026 ASKED BY SHRI SURENDRA SINGH NAGAR, SHRI MITHLESH KUMAR, SHRI AMAR PAL MAURYA, SHRI RAJIB BHATTACHARJEE, DR. PARMAR JASHVANTSINH SALAMSINH, DR. BHAGWAT KARAD, SHRI NARAYANA KORAGAPPA, AND SHRI SUBHASH BARALA REGARDING CASHLESS TREATMENT OF ROAD ACCIDENT VICTIMS. Short-term Long-term States/UTs Blackspots Rectification Rectification 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 463 Haryana 124 121 58 Chandigarh 7 7 0 Madhya Pradesh 596 590 225 Uttar Pradesh 2210 1067 540 UT of J&K & UT of Ladakh 224 170 62 Himachal Pradesh 232 232 199 Chhattisgarh 338 337 245 Rajasthan 727 727 265 Andaman & Nicobar 4 2 2ANNEXURE-B ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (c) OF THE RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2983 FOR ANSWER ON 18.03.2026 ASKED BY SHRI SURENDRA SINGH NAGAR, SHRI MITHLESH KUMAR, SHRI AMAR PAL MAURYA, SHRI RAJIB BHATTACHARJEE, DR. PARMAR JASHVANTSINH SALAMSINH, DR. BHAGWAT KARAD, SHRI NARAYANA KORAGAPPA, AND SHRI SUBHASH BARALA REGARDING CASHLESS TREATMENT OF ROAD ACCIDENT VICTIMS. S. No. Fee Plaza NH / State Status 1. Gharaunda Toll Plaza NH-44 in Haryana Awarded 2. Chorayasi Toll Plaza NH-48 in Gujarat Awarded 3. Daulatpura Toll Plaza NH-48 in Rajasthan Awarded 4. Manoharpura Toll Plaza NH-48 in Rajasthan Awarded 5. Shahjahanpur Toll Plaza NH-48 in Rajasthan Awarded 6. Mundaka Toll Plaza UER-II in Delhi Awarded 7. Boriach Toll Plaza NH-48 in Gujarat Awarded 8. Nemili Toll Plaza NH-48 in Tamil Nadu Awarded 9. Chenasamudram Toll Plaza NH-48 in Tamil Nadu Awarded 10. Paranur Toll Plaza NH-45 in Tamil Nadu Awarded 11. Kasepalli Toll Plaza NH-44 in Andhra Pradesh Awarded 12. Amakathadu Toll Plaza NH-44 in Andhra Pradesh Awarded 13. Marur Toll Plaza NH-44 in Andhra Pradesh Awarded 14. Chalakwadi Toll Plaza NH-50 in Maharashtra Awarded 15. Hiwargaon Pavsa Toll Plaza NH-50 in Maharashtra Awarded 16. Badarpur Faridabad Toll Plaza NH-19 in Haryana Awarded *****