India will soon introduce a graded penalty points system for driving licences, a move that Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said is aimed at cracking down on reckless driving that kills 1,80,000 people annually and costs the country nearly 3 percent of GDP.
The proposed system will assign points for traffic violations. Each offence will chip away at a driver’s record. Repeat offenders risk suspension and eventual cancellation of licences once a threshold is breached.
India records nearly 5,00,000 road accidents every year, Gadkari said at the CII National Conclave on Road Safety in New Delhi on Thursday.
Seventy-two percent of those killed are aged between 18 and 45, the country’s core working population. More than 54,122 deaths are linked to not wearing helmets. Over 14,466 are attributed to not wearing seat belts. Overspeeding alone accounts for over 1,20,000 fatalities, said the minister.
Expressing his disappointment with the numbers, Gadkari called the ministry’s inability to curb fatalities a “black spot”.
At the heart of the new push is reforming how India regulates driving licences. The graded points regime is designed to introduce consequences in a country with “no fear or respect for the law”.
Enforcement, however, is only one leg of a four-part strategy.
The first is road engineering. The ministry has moved from awarding contracts purely on the lowest bid to performance-linked systems. Detailed Project Reports are being scrutinised through performance audits, not just financial ones. “Black spots have been mapped district by district,” said the minister.
One hundred high-fatality districts have been identified, and collectors will be tasked with targeted interventions. In Nagpur, Gadkari’s constituency, similar measures reduced accidents by 50 percent, he said.
The second is vehicle engineering. The success of Bharat NCAP, India’s crash-test assessment programme, has pushed manufacturers to raise safety standards. Six airbags are now mandatory even in mass-market models, bringing domestic regulations closer to global norms. Gadkari said Bharat NCAP-style ratings are now being planned for e-rickshaws.
The third is advanced safety systems for heavy commercial vehicles.
And fourth is stricter enforcement. Penalties have already been enhanced under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act. The graded licence system is meant to institutionalise compliance.
Yet, the minister acknowledged that infrastructure and technology can only go so far. Behavioural change remains elusive. Public awareness campaigns, backed by celebrities and digital platforms, are being rolled out in 22 languages. Collaborations with ride-hailing and food delivery platforms aim to amplify road safety messaging. The ministry plans district-level conferences, mass communication campaigns and school outreach to instil what officials call “social consciousness”.
First Published: Feb 26, 2026, 17:10
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