VISAKHAPATNAM: The Anakapalle-Payakaraopeta stretch which has been witnessing a number of road accidents for the past couple of years has become a major concern for the police officials.
The issue was discussed in the Road Safety Committee meeting at the Commissionerate here on Wednesday. On the occasion, district collector Pravin Kumar instructed the NHAI authorities to increase the height of central median immediately.
A number of accidents occurred at Nakkapalle, S Rayavaram, Kasimkota and Payakaraopeta. Recently, a vehicle jumped to the other side of road, taking heavy toll of life. The seriousness of central medians which are in low height and need of increasing their height was brought before the collector by the rural police.
The issues like lack of streetlights and road openings along the national highway-16 and lack of central medians were brought to the notice of the collector.
Pravin Kumar instructed the Panchayati Raj officials to identify as to how many road openings are connected to the NH-16 in the rural limits and submit a report. He also asked the officials to set up sign boards to alert the road users. The collector also said that Kaparada, Madhurawada and Anandapuram areas do not have central medians, where accidents occur and asked the officials to build the medians at the earliest. Pravin also said that there are number of busy places in the city limits like Gajuwaka, NAD, Maddilapalem and Satyam junction where central median grills are damaged, while they are missing at some other places.
Pravin Kumar said that since it would take some more time to float tenders for the Anakapalle-Anandapuram highway, alternative measures have to be tapped to prevent road accidents and instructed the city traffic police to identify black spots, major junctions, and to make sure that they have streetlights, signal lights, zebra crossings, sign boards and speed-breakers.
City police commissioner T Yoganand, SP (Visakhapatnam Rural) Rahul Dev Sharma, officials of RTO, Roads and Buildings, NHAI and GVMC also took part in the meeting.