NEW DELHI: Concerned over rise in accident cases on national highway, Transport Ministry has issued directive to its staff to ensure that there no advertisement hoardings on National Highway as it causes distraction and also is one of the causes of accidents on NHs.
The ministry in a directive issued to all its offices in states said that despite an existing policy prohibiting advertisement hoardings on NHs, hoardings have generally been noticed along the highways.
The officials in states have been directed to inspect the NHs by prioritizing heavily trafficked NHs and other NHs and submit inspection reports to the Ministry for further necessary action.
“It was decided that the regional officers, engineering, liasoning officers within their jurisdiction shall inspect the NHs by prioritizing heavily trafficked NHs and other NHs in stages and submit inspection reports to the Ministry for further necessary action, along with their monthly reports,” said the directive issued September 7.
Raising concerns over non submission of reports by state officers, the ministry directed them to do the joint inspection of all National Highways within their jurisdiction and send a consolidated report regarding the advertisement hoardings to the ministry.
The ministry in 2012 had issued a circular wherein it was mentioned that no advertisement hoardings are permitted on National Highways within the Right of Way except informatory signs of public interest such as hospitals and bus stations among others. Advertisement of temporary nature announcing local events such as mela or flower show can also be put.
According to latest data, almost 5 lakh road accidents occurred in the country last year, killing 146,000 people and leaving thrice the number injured. There has been an increase of 2.5 percent in number of accidents over 2014.
