India unveils draft law to curb road deaths

Transport Minister TR Baalu introduced the bill in parliament as a replacement for a colonial-era law to cope with the growing number of accidents on India's spreading network of highways.

"Motorists caught driving excessively fast on speed cameras will now face a minimum penalty of 1,000 rupees (23 dollars) in a first-time offence and double the amount for a subsequent offence," Baalu told parliament.

The call for a more than 100-percent hike in penalties came a month after a court in New Delhi ordered sweeping measures including a ban on drinking or smoking while driving in the city of three million vehicles.

Road accident deaths in India jumped almost 46 percent to 277,260 in the decade ended in 2004, according to figures from the Delhi-based Institute of Road Traffic Education of India.

The institute also said India accounts for nearly 10 percent of all fatal accidents worldwide.

Some 1.27 million people are also injured annually in India, it said, attributing the high number to a lack of professional training programmes in the country of one billion-plus people.

Baalu said the bill would also increase compensation for victims of road accidents to 100,000 rupees (2,220 dollars), an almost three-fold increase in the amount currently paid on insurance claims.