Top priority

 Apart from this, WIAA has a number of plans lined up this year, the top priority of which is to establish a training institute in Bhuj and then continue to focus on road safety to bring down the rate of accident and deaths. It has recently introduced roadside assistance in India to members driving in all parts of the country. They have to call the toll free number and a team will reach them within half an hour. The WIAA is also closely working with the concerned authorities on helping to provide solutions/suggestions on road safety and other issues. It also plays a major role as a member of the Road Safety Committee in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

 “A lot has been achieved over the years. In particular, in the last 50 years, we have gone into road safety; that is important for us.” More than 70 per cent of fatal road accidents in 2017 involved adults in the age group of 18-45 years of age. As many as 147,000 people died on Indian roads in the 464,000 accidents reported during 2017, says a report by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. “We want to do something on the critical area of safety,” adds Dossa. “At Ahmedabad, we established the first road safety institute in 1995, which was inaugurated by the then deputy prime minister L.K. Advani. The institute is running successfully, and our next big initiative is to start another institute at Bhuj”.

While WIAA’s top priority is road safety, it is also trying to rope in girls from the slums and train them to drive cars. They are also teaching them to speak English and learn self-defence. WIAA has already employed 18 women so far and 21 more are under training. The association is keen to teach youngsters driving and provide them with licences.

WIAA is a well-known brand in India, and the association gets support from authorities both in India and overseas for all its activities. So far, it has trained 40,000 drivers of the Maharashtra State Transport Corporation and continues to support them in safety areas. To learn the basics and technical details of heavy duty vehicles, WIAA has also installed driving simulators in Nagpur, Pune and Mumbai.

The association organises activities during road safety week every year in tandem with regional authorities and educates them by way of drawing competitions, street plays and helmet distribution. It holds driving classes for safe driving for private and commercial car drivers. It conducts rallies and drives, including the vintage car fiesta, in association with VCCCI and the women’s car rally.

 “The year-long celebrations of WIAA have just started,” says Dossa. “And we are planning another big motor show in 2020”.

(This is reproduced from Business India magazine. This was first published in our issue dated April 8-21, 2019)