Chennai: Nearly 100 new patrol vehicles and ambulances are soon likely to be deployed along 5,000 km of national highways running across the state.
The proposal is a part of the multi-pronged approach involving various central and state government agencies including the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and health service providers.
Despite sharing less than eight per cent of the state's total road network, more than 35 per cent of the road accident-related deaths were reported along corridors in national highways.
To reduce the fatality rate, the NHAI had recently proposed to station ambulances at every 50 km on national highways (maintained by the authority), said NHAI source, adding that the idea was to move the road accident victims to the nearest hospital soon.
Though 10-15 minutes is the average response time now in Tamil Nadu, authorities are optimistic that this move would help in reducing the time taken by the ambulance to reach the accident spot to mere three-four minutes.
Throwing more light about the patrolling system, NHAI officials said that the existing vehicles deployed by private contractors (who are licensed to operate toll gates) are not well-equipped and the new vehicles would help in keeping better vigil, particularly during the wee hours when the accident rate in very high.
Besides this, plans were being devised to deploy cranes at ‘hotspots’ to clear vehicles that get damaged due to accidents and others which get stalled due to mechanical failure creating a traffic congestion along NHs soon.
NHAI has planned to expand this plan to NH stretch maintained by the state highways department depending on the success reported by the proposal.
Reportedly, the state transport department has also planned something similar.
Referring to a recent accident in which three women were killed when a truck hit against a lorry parked in the city's outskirts, a state highways department official said, “Of late vehicles, particularly those with heavy goods, parked along sides of highways are posing a serious threat to other vehicles passing by. So, we have decided to hire high-capacity cranes from private agencies as and when accidents are reported to shift the parked vehicles”. Cost was likely to be recovered from the vehicle owners.
