Madhya Pradesh is set to launch a pilot project that could deny fuel to vehicles without valid insurance, marking a significant step towards tightening road-safety enforcement through technology.

The state government has decided to select one district with the highest number of uninsured vehicles for the pilot, which will involve installing cameras at petrol pumps linked to the VAHAN portal to identify and prevent vehicles without valid insurance from receiving fuel.

Justice Sapre directed the state government to launch the pilot project at the earliest after discussions with officials of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and technical experts. Once tested, it's proposed to be expanded to other districts in phases, taking insurance enforcement beyond conventional traffic checks.

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The Supreme Court had earlier suggested integrating automatic number-plate recognition cameras with the VAHAN and insurance databases to identify uninsured vehicles electronically. The meeting also decided to expand the Zero-Fatality District programme from six to nine districts in Madhya Pradesh.

Indore, Bhopal, and Ujjain will now be added to Dhar, Satna, Rewa, Sagar, Jabalpur, and Khargone, where the programme is already being implemented. The scale of the challenge remains considerable, with Madhya Pradesh recording an average of around 13,000 road accident deaths every year.

Government officials said fatalities in the first six months of 2026 had declined, but efforts are being made to bring the number down further compared with previous years. Justice Sapre stressed that preventing road deaths requires not only enforcement but also active participation from local communities.

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He called for the formation of committees at the local level and encouraged community members to participate and be provided incentives for their efforts. Short- and long-term plans to address road accidents caused

The emphasis should be on ensuring that these plans are not merely prepared but effectively implemented within a time-bound framework. The state government will make necessary financial provisions for implementing the Zero-Fatality District programme, while CSR initiatives and technological solutions will also be used.

Emergency response was another area identified for improvement, with authorities informed that the average time taken to transport an accident victim to a hospital in urban areas is 16 minutes. The goal is to reduce this response time further.