a789 black spots have been identified based on accidents between 2011-2014.
New Delhi: Increasing fine for traffic violations is not the only step Union road minister Nitin Gadkari took to reduce fatalities due to road accidents.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), which had identified 789 black spots based on the number of accidents that were recorded in the four-year period between 2011-2014, is working on a war footing to rectify these spots.
A black spot on a road is identified as a stretch of road of about 500 meters in length in which either five road accidents or 10 fatalities have taken place in three calendar years.
Out of these 789 black spots, 506 are on national highways under the jurisdiction of the National Highways Authority of India, 144 on national highways under the jurisdiction of state PWDs, while 139 black spots are under the respective state governments.
As per the ministry’s record, the maximum numbers of such death traps are in Uttar Pradesh (104), Tamil Nadu (102) and Karnataka (86).
As per the latest data, till the end of March 2019, the NHAI had rectified 250 of these 506 black spots that come under its jurisdiction, while work on 203 is still going on. The bidding and sanction process for 31 is going on, while bidding and sanction work on the remaining 22 stretches still remains.
An official with the MoRTH, who is not authorised to speak to the media, told The Sunday Guardian: “Identifying the black spots and then reaching the stage where rectification work is finally carried out, is a time taking process. To stop and minimise accidents at these spots during this time period, we use cautionary measures to warn the drivers through sign boards, solar blinkers and speed reduction measures like speed breakers. Identifying black sports is a very efficient way to reduce road fatalities.”
In 2016, India witnessed 4,80,652 road accidents which means, on an average, 1,315 accidents took place every day. In the same period, 1,50,785 people lost their lives, which translates to almost 413 deaths every day. The corresponding figure for 2017 was 4,64,910 accidents and 1,47,913 deaths. This is more than what HIV or tuberculosis manages to kill in India.
In both these years, only 30% of the accidents took place on national highways, while the rest 70% took place on state highways and other roads, where traffic rules, if implemented strictly, play a key role in controlling rash driving.
As per the World Health Organization, there were 13.50 lakh reported deaths due to road accidents across the world in 2016. India was on the second number, just behind China on this list.
Experts have found that most of the road accidents occur due to speed and rash driving and geometric conditions contribute less to such accidents; a majority of the road accidents occur in broad daylight rather than, as is the common perception, at night.