Accidents: Killer spots on highways in Telangana
More than 10% of highway deaths due to accidents that occur at these spots
Hyderabad: Over 10 per cent of the total deaths in accidents on highways occur at killer spots. After coming under the hammer of the Supreme Court appointed road safety committee for neglecting accident prone areas, Telangana Roads and Buildings officials along with the police and transport department, have in the first phase identified over 70 killer spots on highways where accidents are taking place for the last three years.
Every year, Telangana witnesses over 20,000 road accidents with over 7,000 casualties. About 70 accident prone areas have been identified in the first phase of only the national highways that are under the control of NH wing of Telangana government.
“There are hundreds of killer spots on national highways that are under the control of Telangana state. These 70 are crucial black spots as the joint teams of police, transport, R&B and NH felt that the accident rate could be brought down at these points by making engineering (geometrical corrections) at these spots. Other killer spots on NHs under TS government control will be identified and their geometrical correction will be taken up in the New Year in the second phase,” a senior official in the NH wing of Telangana government said.
It may be mentioned that national highways like Hyderabad-Vijayawada, Hyderabad-Nagpur, Hyderabad-Bengaluru are under the control of NHAI which is an independent wing and is directly under the control of the ministry of road transport. The killer spots on highways under the control of NHAI are many more and the NHAI is taking up its rectification.
In Telangana, the road assets of R&B department comprises 24,245 kms of road length with 3,152 kms of State Highways, 12,079 kms of Major District Roads, and 9,014 kms of Other District Roads. There are 16 National Highways passing through the state covering a length of 2,592 kms, out of which 868 kms are with NHAI and remaining with NH wing of Telangana. Roads and Buildings executive engineer Bapi Raju said the SC court committee is ‘very serious’ about taking up road safety measures and reducing the road accident rate.
“The seriousness could be estimated by the fact that there is now a proposal to set up new Road Safety department,” he said and added works have already started on geometrical rectification of killer spots roads and this rectification may extend up to 1-km if required.
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