Bid to rectify faulty road design to curb accidents

Bhubaneswar: The state government has started the process to rectify faulty road designs in the capital to prevent traffic snarls and accidents.
In the first phase, the defective roads at Sishu Bhawan Square, Ravi Talkies Square, Kalpana Square, Esplanade-Rasulgarh stretch, Beherasahi Chhak and Aiginia underpass Chhak would be improved.
“We identified the bottlenecks and defective designs near some traffic posts. Recently a proposal was sent to the works department and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to rectify the erroneous designs. They have started a survey of the roads. Once the issue is addressed, traffic congestions and accidents are likely to come down,” assistant commissioner of police (traffic) Swastik Panda said.
Defective road engineering can be fatal for commuters. An SUV, carrying Cyrus Mistry and his friends met with an accident in Maharashtra due to faulty design of the bridge. Cyrus and another man died as they were not wearing the rear seat belts.
After completion of the ongoing survey, the state works department would soon widen some portions of the roads to ensure smooth movement of vehicles. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) have started evicting encroachers from government land to enable the works department to carry out the road widening work.
A few days ago, chief minister Naveen Patnaik instructed the commissionerate police, works department, BDA and the BMC to work in a coordinated manner to improve the capital’s traffic scenario in the capital city.
Police sources said at least 30% of the total accident deaths occurred due to erroneous engineering of roads, absence of signages, potholes and bad condition of roads in the state last year.
As per the Section 198 of the amended Motor Vehicles Act, 2019, various enforcement agencies are authorised to penalise road engineers and contractors for their negligence, related to bad condition of roads and accident deaths. If convicted, they may be sentenced to three years of imprisonment or be penalized up to Rs 1 lakh.