Jaipur schools on National Highways wary of over-speeding trucks

JAIPUR: The stretch between Mahapura to Bad-Ke-Balaji on Ajmer road is nothing short of a nightmare for many of its residents who dread passing through the road which has witnessed a series of accidents.
In July 2016, an eight-year-old boy, a student of St Xavier's school at Nevta-Mahapura was killed along with his father when an over-speeding truck hit their bike from behind. This could be a stray incident but every day the overloaded trucks pose a danger to students.

Jayshree Periwal, director of J P group of schools, says that frequent jams on the stretch have become the order of the day. "These jams are leading to waste of time. Many a time, the prolonged jams delay classes. The red lights on the stretch are also not manned properly making the crossings very vulnerable," said Periwal.

Delhi Public School, which is located on the National Highway-8, relies on its trained and experienced staff during the entry and exit of the school buses. Sangeeta Kain, principal of Delhi Public School at Bhankrota says that the school takes utmost care in ferrying students to our campus.

"Our trained staff regulate the traffic of our buses, which is our own fleet, during the entry and exit time. For our drivers having experiences of over 15 years, the priority is safety even as they need to negotiate traffic jams and overloaded trucks," says Kain.

St Xavier's Senior Secondary School in Nevta is also wary of the heavy traffic on the National Highway, Sikar road. "We always flag our concerns to the traffic department to ensure that at least overloaded vehicles should not be allowed entry. They pose a big threat as drivers of these overloaded vehicles cannot see anything from the rear window posing a threat to the school buses and those students who come by two wheelers," said C K Punnose, principal of the school.

Damodar Goyal, president, society for private unaided schools in Rajasthan, says that the state should strictly comply with the traffic rules on roads or highways which have schools.

"Schools located on Jaipur-Ajmer highway, Delhi highway and Agra highway are very vulnerable. Traffic police should be placed at all highways in urban areas and speed-breakers should be placed on either side of the schools," said Goyal.