International Road Assessment Programme to inspect faults on NH-16

Visakhapatnam: The Road Transport department, in association with few others, will unveil the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), co-chair of the Safer Roads Pillar of the UN Road Safety Collaboration, in Vizag city soon. The iRAP survey vehicle will inspect NH-16 stretch in Vizag district, rating those for their safety design features and identifying what countermeasures could be developed to help make the roads safer for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

Road accidents are on the rise in Vizag, Vijayawada and few other towns in Andhra Pradesh. While 7,908 lives were snuffed out in road crashes in 2014 in AP, the figure went up to 8,297 in 24,258 road accidents in 2015. Over 362 and 343 deaths in 1,644 and 1,637 road accidents were reported from Vijayawada and Vizag cities respectively in 2015, as per the data on Road Accidents in India-2015.

Interestingly, over 70 per cent of the fatal road accidents were reported on the national highways and state highways in the state. A good road design will help mitigate injuries in road crashes and there will be more chances of survival. “Initially iRAP will focus on the NHs in the state,” deputy transport commissioner, Visakhapatnam, S.V. Rao said.

Sources said transport commissioner N. Balasubhramanyam had requested the authorities and students of Andhra University to study the reasons behind most of the road fatalities in Vizag and also to prepare a scientific report to reduce road crashes. The transport authorities urged people to avoid overspeeding on the roads as it is the reason for  a majority of accidents.