IIT Delhi to play key role in SITIS- An Indo-Swedish collaboration for increased traffic safety

IIT Delhi to play key role in SITIS- An Indo-Swedish collaboration for increased traffic safety

More than 150,000 traffic-related fatalities occur annually in India. Cooperation between Swedish and Indian companies and institutions is now being formed to greatly reduce these. The lessons learned will be utilized for development needs in different parts of the world in order to strengthen traffic safety as widely as possible.

In 2018, Sweden and India signed an innovation agreement. Swedish-India Transport Innovation and Safety Platform (SITIS) is a strong and concrete example of how innovation cooperation between the countries actually happens, and can create global values ​​in the security area.

SITIS was launched in Stockholm on Thursday in the presence of Mr. Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister of Transport & Highways, Government of India & Mr. Thomas Eneroth, Hon’ble Minister for Infrastructure, Government of Sweden in the presence of CEOs and Senior Management of various Swedish & Indian companies, Academia and Research Institutes from the partnership as well as state representatives.

Leading Indian companies and institutes with expertise in safety have come together to form the SITIS as a long-term platform for innovation and a center for excellence on traffic safety research. The SITIS partnership will build deeper understanding of traffic safety in India, and provide insights into the core challenges facing many fast-growing economies with similar challenges and their potential solutions. This will provide a unique ability to inform and evaluate policy and technology priorities.

For over two decades IIT Delhi through its Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Program (TRIPP) has been focusing on the adverse health effects of road transport and integrates all issues concerned with transportation in order to promote safety, cleaner air and energy conversation.

IIT Delhi has been working closely with Industry and Government organizations to analyse road crashes, promote road safety, develop sustainable transport policies and transport systems, and design of safer vehicles and roads.

Prof Anoop Chawla, Dept of Mechanical Engg., who is coordinating this activity from IIT Delhi says, “With the involvement of a large number of Vulnerable Road Users in road crashes in India, the safety requirements in India are unique and this SITIS platform plans to bring together different groups to address Indian needs and provide potential solutions”.

In this area IIT Delhi has worked closely with a large number of Indian as well as International organizations. It received the first center of excellence award from Volvo Research and Educational Foundation, Sweden and is a WHO collaborating centre for Road Safety since 1997.

This SITIS platform, through the multi-institutional collaboration it activates, shall give a fresh impetus to IIT Delhi’s existing focus on road safety.
This demands an integrated approach where mobilizing stakeholders and implementing cost effective measures is a key challenge. SITIS aims to achieve just that by bringing together organizations leading in the safety arena from Sweden & India.

Road safety is critical in delivering the 2030 Global Goals for sustainable development (SDG) and enable an efficient transport system, and thus remove obstacles for societal growth and prosperity. Strong action for road safety is essential to support India’s ambition to cut fatalities by half in the next 10 years.

Members of this platform are companies and institutes who lead in the safety area in their respective domains. These include partners such as; Volvo Group, Autoliv, Ericsson, Manipal Hospitals, Altair, Saab and Tech Mahindra, as well as universities and research institutes; India Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), Chalmers University of Technology, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden; and the technical authorities Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) , the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). The platform will also engage the Vision Zero Academy at the Swedish Transport Administration and Niti Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India).