Safety on Indian roads has taken on a new meaning with the ‘longest and largest walkathon’ from Kanyakumari to Kashmir by Subramanian ‘Subu’ Narayanan, Member Club D2S, the lead walker, who recently reached Delhi-NCR.
Speaking at an interactive session on ‘1 Crore Steps for Safer Roads’ under the National Road Safety Campaign organised by FICCI in association with Club D2S, SIAM, Mr. Narayanan said, “When we make the roads safer, and when more people can walk, use of private vehicles will come down for short distances and roads will become even safer. I am on a mission to raise public awareness about the difficulty of pedestrians on Indian roads, which can lead to urgent action for creating a robust and systematic approach to road safety. I appeal to all to join me to support this cause.”
The unique national campaign of 1 Crore Steps for Safer Roads – ‘Public Walk Donation’ got a new lease from two mega walkathons – one on 22 September from Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Gurgaon and the second on 24 September 2018 from Sector 11, Dwarka, where thousands of participants from schools, colleges, corporates and other institutes were expected to join the walk.
The campaign is supported by many of India’s apex organisations including FICCI.
As a measure of its demonstration of support to the cause of road safety, FICCI employees walked 1.8 kms around the vicinity of Federation House, a distance covered in 23 minutes.
Ramashankar Pandey, President, Central Working Committee of the NGO, Drive Smart, Drive Safe, and Managing Director, HELLA India Lighting Ltd. said, “The latest data on road accidents in India is very alarming. With one death every four minutes and an accident every minute, the situation is critical and cannot be left unattended for long. Hence our team member, ‘Subu’ is taking the challenge to appeal to all Indians to join this national movement and donate their walk on www.onecroresteps.com to give this cause the highest priority.”
Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI said, “Ensuring road safety is a collective effort and the message here is that if each one takes a step, it can motivate others towards the collective goal of road safety. FICCI is supporting the walkathon from Kanyakumari to Kashmir which is aimed at creating, increasing and infusing pedestrian safety awareness, and we will take the message across our members for their support.”
