Telangana HC seeks govt replies on illegal parking on NH

 Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday expressed concern over the number of accidents taking place on National Highways due to illegally parked trucks and lack of precautions to curb the same.

Taking up the issue as a PIL, the High Court issued notices to the Central and state governments, seeking details of such accidents and laws regarding vehicle parking on National Highways. It also inquired the mechanism to take action against illegal parking on highways.

“All the details shall be submitted to the court within six weeks by the Union Secretary of  ministry of surface transport (National Highways), Telangana state Chief Secretary, principal secretaries of state home and transport (roads and buildings) department, commissioner of transport, chief engineer of roads and buildings and the Director General of Police,” the court said.

The issue was brought to the court’s notice through a letter sent by D. Nagaraju, a mason by profession and a resident of Nizamabad town. In the letter, the petitioner informed the court that illegal parking of heavy vehicles on National Highways was causing motorists to succumb to accidents.

Further, the author of the letter alleged lack of steps by the state machinery to curb illegal parking, leading to accidents, causing deaths and leaving dependents of victims in the lurch.

Nagaraju cited an instance of travel on NH-44 from Nizamabad to Kamareddy on December 19, 2021, on a motorbike along with his wife, Rekha, and nine-year-old daughter, D. Vibhavi. He said that at Shabdipur village, they met with an accident, hit an illegally parked lorry, leading to his daughter’s death and fracturing both his legs.

He said that three engineering students, who were travelling in an SUV, met with an accident caused by illegal parking on the Hyderabad-Karimnagar Road and died in the incident.