Zomato, Uber partner with govt. for road safety initiative

Zomato and Uber on Wednesday announced that they would distribute promotional material on road safety in partnership with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. With notification, video and in-app messages under the Sadak Suraksha Abhiyan (road safety scheme), the firms will share road safety tips and announcements on their respective apps. 

Much of the promotional material, starring Amitabh Bachchan, was written by Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson Prasoon Joshi. “Our country has 5 lakh accidents and 1.8 lakh deaths a year due to road incidents,” Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said at the launch event for the partnership. 

“This is not just a matter of road and automobile engineering. Even after increasing fines and a new road safety law, we see lack of respect and fear for the law. Massive outreach through NGOs, private companies, celebrities etc. is required.”

“Too often we as customers forget that safety is about the choices we make,” Vaibhav Chopra, head of logistics at Zomato said, gently chiding customers for calling delivery agents and cab drivers to hurry up. “Due to our scale, we believe we can have a huge impact,” Uber’s head of safety operations Sooraj Nair said. “We plan on reaching out to over 25 million drivers overall, and 1.4 million drivers on our platform, through videos and in person sessions.”