Deadly NHs: Just 2% of roads, 35% of fatalities

NEW DELHI: National Highways constitute only 2% of India’s road length, but account for nearly 35% deaths in road accidents. The corresponding figures for state highways are 3% and 28%.

Of the total 1.5 lakh road fatalities in 2016, over 94,000 people died on national and state highways. On an average, one life is lost in every three accidents on NHs and state highways. Road safety experts feel the data highlight the need for dedicated patrol forces on these highspeed corridors since there is hardly any enforcement of traffic rules by local police.

Traffic violations such as speeding, drunk driving, leaving vehicles parked on road and overloading are rampant and are the main reasons of crashes and fatalities.

The SC had in November also observed, “It is also necessary to set up special patrol forces along the National Highways and State Highways for which necessary steps must be taken by the state governments and Union Territories.”

The first proposal to set up a uniform agency to man the highways was mooted by CISF in 2005, but it did not get any push from the government.

“As we build more highways and expressways, we also need to have some enforcement mechanism in place, else we are going to see more fatalities. The local police lack manpower to monitor violations on highways and expressways. We need a special force that’s trained to catch offenders involved in speeding, drunk driving, overloading and lane violations. The call has to be taken by the Centre and it can rope in the state governments,” said road safety expert Rohit Baluja, who was involved in making the plan for a uniform agency mooted by CISF 13 years back.

Highlighting how each state has inadequate manpower to manage traffic and detect violations, the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D) in 2015 suggested that to monitor over 85 lakh vehicles and manage traffic besides numerous VVIP movements, Delhi alone would require 15,345 traffic police personnel, Mumbai with much less number of about 23.33 lakh vehicles would need 4,779 traffic policemen and Lucknow 3,852.