SIAM Organises Surakshit Safar Initiative At Auto Expo 2023

With a focus to increase awareness about road safety among the visitors at Auto Expo, SIAM organized the Surakshit Safar Pavilion on the sidelines of national road safety week from 11th to 17th January in association with the market leader in mobility solutions, Rosmerta from 12th to 18th January during the Auto Expo – The Motor Show at Greater Noida.

The Surakshit Safar pavilion was inaugurated by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India with Vinod Agarwal, President SIAM and many other eminent members from the automobile industry graced the inaugural session on 12 January 2023, at Auto Expo 2023. The Minister was briefed on the efforts put in place by SIAM, aligning with the government’s mission of building road safety awareness for the general masses. During the visit, the Minister had also met and spoke to the especially aided children visiting the pavilion.

Many OEM leaders like Honda Motorcycle & Scooter, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto Ltd, Honda Cars, Skoda Auto Volkswagen and Tata Motors have participated at the Auto Expo. The pavilion has received many visitors from various facets of society and industry namely students, vehicle users, specially-abled road users, automotive manufacturers, component manufacturers, emergency care givers, state institution employees and enforcers. The pavilion has been offering multiple avenues of attraction and knowledge transfer for the aforementioned public. 

The benefits of road safety were highlighted to the visitors at Road Safety pavilion through multiple attractions like simulators, competitions, performances and photo booths. Multiple road safety stakeholders like Delhi Traffic Police, Centre of Excellence for Road Safety from IIT Madras, Indian Head Injury Foundation, Dr. Shroff Eye Centre & Eicher Foundation, IVC Logistics – CMVR Compliant Logistics also highlighted exceptional work executed by them. 

Speaking during the inaugural of the Surakshit Safar Pavilion, Vinod Agarwal, President SIAM mentioned “SIAM and the Indian auto industry has been committed to improving the road safety scenario in the country. A lot of work has been done on vehicular engineering, and now Indian vehicles are matching global standards. Now, there is a need for focus on other E’s as well of which education is critical as its helps to effect a behavioural change in road users, which can play a major role in reducing accidents. The Surakshit Safar Pavilion is one such initiative focusing on increasing public awareness about safety and seeing the success of the event, SIAM now plans to replicate this initiative throughout the country.” 

PK Banerjee, Executive Director SIAM said “This journey of Surakshit Safar aligns with government vision of establishing a safe and secure road safety ecosystem for all the stakeholders. SIAM has been at the forefront of different initiatives to help improve road safety scenario in the country. We believe that education is a critical enabler for improving road safety as we along with many OEMs have also been focusing on education starting from the school level, so that safe driving practices are inculcated from an early age. Going forward, we are also planning to launch a pan India initiative focused on educating school children across all levels about road safety. Through these and many such initiatives, SIAM is focused towards achieving government’s vision of improving road safety in the country.”

Apart from panels displaying various facets of road safety like importance of helmets, importance of wearing seat belts, and Good Samaritan law – First Responder is also on display. The pavilion has also concentrated on Asli Naqli (Be Genuine Buy Genuine), bringing to light the spurious parts business that is a massive illegal industry amounting to Rs 25,000 crores.