IIT Madras Develops Integrated Road Safety Dashboard to Drive Data-Led Governance

In a landmark development poised to transform road safety governance and significantly enhance road safety outcomes across India, the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-Madras) has developed an ‘Integrated Road Safety Dashboard’

to integrate diverse data streams to drive policymaking.

This creates the platform for a standardized yet flexible approach to road safety governance.

It is envisioned as a scalable, configurable and replicable digital public infrastructure that can be adopted by States and union Territories across India, aligned with their respective road safety strategies and governance frameworks, a release from IIT-Madras said on Friday.

By integrating data from multiple departments and presenting it through real-time analytics and actionable insights, the dashboard empowers leadership to identify risk areas, assign responsibility, track interventions and measure impact

Developed by the RBG Labs, this cutting-edge digital platform represents a major advancement in e-governance, demonstrating how technology can enable coordinated, data-driven decision-making in complex public policy domains such as road safety.

The Integrated Road Safety Dashboard has already demonstrated its potential through successful adoption by the Government of Odisha and it is now positioned for wider replication.

As part of ‘Road Safety Month 2026’ celebrations underway during January 2026, Odisha recently launched the dashboard. Its modular design allowed Odisha to customise workflows, indicators, and reporting structures while adhering to a common National framework.

Elaborating on the practical application of the new system, Amitabh Thakur, Transport Commissioner-cum-Chairman, Odisha State Transport Authority (STA), said, “The Dashboard provides the analytical backbone and monitoring we need for a sustained enforcement and interventions. By employing data driven human factors-based approach, we are empowering our officers with access to modern technology to deal with road safety, ultimately helping us save lives and make our roads safer for everyone.”

Road safety has emerged as a National priority with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and State Governments increasingly recognising the urgent need for systematic, data driven interventions.

While significant efforts have been made in recent years, road safety remains a multi-departmental challenge involving Transport, Police, Road Owning Agencies, Health, Urban Development and other stakeholders.

In the absence of integrated systems, actions have often been fragmented, with limited coordination and insufficient use of data to guide interventions and monitor outcomes.

Highlighting the need for such initiatives, Prof. V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “Road safety is a complex public challenge that demands coordinated action, institutional accountability, and intelligent use of data. This Dashboard exemplifies how academic research and technological innovation can directly support governance and public service delivery."

"By enabling evidence-based decision-making and cross-departmental collaboration, this platform has the potential to significantly strengthen road safety management across States and union Territories in India", he said.

Elaborating further, Prof. Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Head, RBG Labs, who led the project development, said, “The Dashboard is

not just a technology platform, it is a governance reform tool. This is e-governance in its truest sense where technology directly contributes to saving lives.”

The Integrated Road Safety Dashboard addresses a long-standing gap by enabling coordinated action across departments and moving governance from isolated data collection to outcome-oriented implementation. It builds on the foundation laid by the Integrated Road Accidents Database (iRAD), currently referred to as eDAR (electronic detailed accident report) the national accident database of the MoRTH.

This was conceptualised and designed by RBG Labs, IIT Madras, and implemented by NICSI. Availability of such database significantly strengthens the basis of decision making. While eDAR enabled robust data capture, State Governments expressed the need for platforms that translate data into clear, actionable insights, support inter-departmental accountability and allow continuous monitoring of interventions. This Dashboard has been designed precisely to meet these requirements.

The platform represents a shift from a “data-only” approach to a comprehensive “Data Action” paradigm.”

Senior leadership can use the dashboard to identify accident hotspots, monitor departmental performance, assess the effectiveness of engineering, enforcement, and emergency response measures, and plan targeted interventions with precision.

Key features include an Officials’ Portal offering executive summaries, location intelligence, monitoring tools, and visual analytics,

as well as a Citizen Portal that enables public reporting of accidents, hazards, and grievances—thereby strengthening transparency,

trust, and participatory governance.

By institutionalising data-driven decision-making, enhancing inter-departmental coordination, and embedding accountability into everyday governance processes, the Integrated Road Safety Dashboard sets a new benchmark for how digital platforms can be

leveraged to address complex societal challenges. As it scales nationally, the initiative holds the promise of significantly

strengthening India’s collective efforts to reduce road accidents, save lives, and build safer roads for all.