New Delhi: After a long gap of 25 years, government is all set to revise the speed limit of vehicles plying on national highways. As per the new guidelines, any vehicle with a seating capacity of less than eight people shall be allowed to speed up to 100 kmph.

For all other vehicles, including two-wheelers and quadricycles (a new category of vehicles), the speed limit has been extended up to 80 kmph.

Rapid advancements in road and highway development in the last one decade had augmented the need for hiking the speed limit of vehicle plying on national highways.

The issue was first addressed in 2006-07 when a committee was set up to look into the prospects of revising the speed limits on Indian highways.

The committee observed that imposing uniform speed limit on Indian highway is not feasible owing to the multiplicity of vehicles plying on them.

Hence, a model- allotting variable maximum speed limit for different vehicles- was proposed.

As per the proposal, motorcycle, which were earlier banned from plying on highways, were allotted a maximum speed limit of 80 kmph.

Speed restrictions on cars too were relaxed and as per the new proposal were allowed the speed limit of 100 kmph.

The committee also shifted its focus from allotting speed limit to vehicles based on their type. The new study was based on the criteria of classifying vehicles based upon their seating capacity.

A passenger vehicle with a seating capacity of 8 passengers excluding the driver was allowed to ply at a maximum speed limit of 80kmph. Any vehicle with a seating capacity of less than 8 people was allowed to speed up to 100 kmph.

The idea of hiking speed limit on Indian roads has often been refuted by the critics owing to the dangers involved. It has been observed that since the improvement in condition of Indian roads, accidents have shown an upward trend.

Times of India, lack of enforcement by the administration to reign in dangerous driving was one of the major reasons behind high number of accidents. As per a news report published in the, lack of enforcement by the administration to reign in dangerous driving was one of the major reasons behind high number of accidents.

2009-12 the number of people killed on Indian roads increased from 35,200 to 60,720. The report pointed that during the period

The above statistics corroborate the need for the implementation of better speed regulation measures to minimize the number of accidents happening on Indian roads.

Image: A dual carriageway section of National Highway 8 connecting Delhi to Gurgaon (Image Courtesy: Wikipedia)