A section of road prone to accidents along Kalhatti Ghat Road in the Nilgiris is being modified to make the road safer for cars and vans.
The section of road in question, between hairpin bends number 34 and 35, has been the scene of many accidents, the most recent of which left five people dead, and two others with serious injuries after their car plunged off the road in October of 2018. Statistics from the police department revealed that a total of 28 people had died along the entire 19 km. stretch over the last five years, with a significant number of the total number of accidents occurring after the 30th hairpin bend.
Officials from the state highways, who have begun work on the road, said that the gradient of the road is extremely steep in the final section of the ghat road, and that many motorists, especially those using cars, do not know how to safely descend the route, leading to their brakes failing when they reach the bottom of the hill. The two factors converge in leading to cars, and in the past, even buses, plunging off the road and leading to high casualty figures.
The current road work, being undertaken along the section of road, which is less than a 100 meters in length, aims towards ensuring that drivers of cars have a wider road to manoeuvre their vehicles, and thereby reducing the turning angle. “The width of the road, which is currently around 4 meters, will be extended to six meters,” said an official from the state highways department.
It is hoped that motorists using the road, even if their vehicles suffer a mechanical failure, can use the wider roads to steer their vehicles away from the cliff-face. Currently, the nature of the bend means that if vehicles cannot stop for the turn, they face a sheer drop of a few hundred feet to the valley below.
The cost of the road expansion work is estimated to be around ₹ 45 lakh, and is scheduled to be completed in the coming months, officials said. Apart from the re-profiling of the dangerous road section, other safety measures, such as the installation of more speed bumps, and prohibiting vehicles from outside the district to use the Kalhatti road, have been enforced since the accident in October.