The NH roads only constitute 2% of all the roads in the country, however, contribute to 31% of all accidents. Moreover, these NH roads carry the burden of 36% of all road accident deaths occurring in the country. These were the statistics shared by DGP for Road Safety Authority of Telangana, Krishna Prasad while addressing a one-day conclave on ‘Road Safety and Audit for improvement of traffic safety on Monday.
Stating that road engineers must lay high importance on the issue of road safety while taking up any road projects, he stated that Telangana strives to achieve a 50% reduction in fatalities by 2024. At present, the number of deaths is about 7200-6800 a year.
“We need a change not just in the design parameters, but also in the audit parameters. Not only should they make audit of all roads mandatory, but the gaps must also be plugged in terms of having penalties when the audit finds problems with the laid road infra,” added Krishna Prasad.
He referred to the US Federal Highway Administration’s system where not only are the new projects mentioned, but so are the sanctioned budgets, the audit panel, the penal clause one will incur if the audit finds gaps and the design parameters.
However, in India, the method followed is different, and required a policy level change if any. “The NH projects presently undertaken are only 4-laning of the existing infrastructure. They are not being built from scratch like the ORR where all accident proof infrastructure has been fitted. So wherever there are critical points and black spots at present are we fitting infrastructure like grade separators and service roads and underpasses to fix the problem for the local traffic using the roads,” added I Ganapathy Reddy, Engineer in Chief,
Furthermore, the experts noted that the Road Safety bill if passed in TS Assembly will change the way the RSA presently functions as it will fetch more budget for the R&B to not just build but also maintain and rework on what infrastructure they build in the districts. It will also bring in the police, Motor vehicle inspectors, ambulances in its ambit to save as many lives in the ‘golden hour’.