Telangana: No help at killer spots

Hyderabad: Though Hyderabad and Cyberabad traffic police have identified about 50 accident spots in and around the city that have claimed more than 400 lives last year, there is no emergency mechanism at these spots.

GVK EMRI chief executive officer Ramana Rao said, “Ambulances are stationed within a radius of 20 kilometers of the accident spots. There is no emergency trauma care center at the spot but if the victim is able to speak, he or she is asked where he or she wants to go.

"If there is an attendant than they are asked, or if the accident is very bad than the police has to take the patient to the nearest hospital irrespective of the fact whether it is a private or government hospital", Ramana Rao added.

Private hospitals stabilise the patients but there is a need for improving the emergency response system whereby more lives can be saved. The major problem is the unavailability of a neurosurgeon 24x7 in the emergency system.

A senior doctor said, “In the city, 24x7 neurosurgeon is only at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences and in other hospitals there are orthopedic and cardiac surgeons stationed all the time in the casualty ward. There is a need to have more centers that have neurosurgeons in casualty.”

Traffic cops of Hyderabad and Cyberabad have also mapped accident spots and they have been uploaded on their respective websites www.ctp.gov.in and www.htp.gov.in.

A visit to these websites however reveals that only the names of the police stations where the accidents occurred have been listed and not the “actual stretches”.

The cops said that the stretch-wise list will be put up in due course.
Cyberabad DCP, traffic Mr Avinash Mohanty said they were yet to get in touch with medical and health department officials to place emergency care facilities near the accident prone areas.

“We have identified the black spots and along with GHMC and transport department, are trying to make some corrections from the road engineering point of view,” he said.

Hyderabad DCP, traffic Mr A.V. Ranganath meanwhile said they would write to the medical and health department or urge the GHMC to take it up with the departments to arrange for emergency medical care facilities in the vicinity of the black spots.

Demo corridor on
Telangana Roads and Buildings engineer-in-chief (State Roads and Road Development Corporation) P. Ravinder Rao said they have taken a “demo corridor with all road safety measures” on the 124-km Hyderabad-Bijapur road.

“It is a World Bank funded project; it is going to be a demo corridor wherein trauma care centres with ambulances, high patrolling, cranes, etc. would in place for every 50 km. As many as 12 sharp curves have also been corrected on this stretch and improvement of black spots is also going on,” he said.

As part of a pilot project, two “demo corridors” have been taken up – the 124-km-long Hyderabad-Bijapur road in Telangana and139-km-long Renigunta-Rayalacheruvu stretch in AP.

Aligned departments such as Police, Medical and Health, Education, Engineering, R & B and Transport are working in tandem for effective implementation of the project.