KOCHI: More than one-third of the highways in the state are prone to accidents, reveals a latest study report prepared by the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC).
According to the ‘Road Safety Action Plan for Kerala State (2025-2030)’, more than 2,200 km of road corridors -- national highways (NH) and state highways -- in the state are found to be “crash vulnerable”. The study has been done to facilitate the government to form a comprehensive Road Safety Action Plan which aims to cut the accident fatalities in the state by half by 2030.
While a whopping 60% (1,089.4 km out of the total 1,811.52 km) of the NH is accident-prone, 26% of the state highways (1,144 km out of the total 4,342 km) falls under the category. Combined, 36% (2,233km out of 6,153 km) of the highways are crash vulnerable, shows the report.
The Average Annual Traffic Crashes (AATC) for all major categories of roads in Kerala was found to be higher for NH with 5.15 crashes/km, followed by state highways (2.23 crashes/km). Other roads reported a low crash rate of around 0.10 crashes/km, the report states.
As per the report, a major portion of the vulnerable stretches is in Thrissur (289.9 km) while Ernakulam is second with 265.7 km, followed by Kozhikode (224.3 km), Malappuram (219.7 km), Alappuzha (192.4 km), Kottayam (183.1 km), Thiruvananthapuram (174) km), Palakkad (168.2 km), Kollam (143.1 km), Kannur (137.8 km), Pathanamthitta (83.8 km), Kasaragod (55.3 km), Idukki (49.8 km) and Wayanad (47.7 km).
Out of the state’s total road network of 2.05 lakh km, NATPAC identified a total of 323 vulnerable road stretches. Of these, 149 stretches are on the NH and 174 on the state highways.
Meanwhile, NATPAC has identified a total of 4,592 black spots across the state, with Ernakulam having the highest number of such stretches (703), followed by Thiruvananthapuram (694) and Thrissur (548).
A total of 374 priority black spots have been identified, where immediate rectification action is required.
They are further classified into ‘Priority I’ (250 locations) and ‘Priority II’ (124 locations). While 227 priority black spots were
identified on NH, 84 were identified on State Highways and 63 on other roads, says the report.
In the wake of the persistent increase in road accidents over the past decade, the state is now preparing a comprehensive Road Safety Action Plan to address the challenges and achieve safe mobility.
“The main objective of the Road Safety Action Plan for Kerala is to enhance safety on roads in line with the Integrated System Approach, thereby reducing road crash-related fatalities and injuries to at least 50% in the state by 2030,” the report says.
Kerala, which recorded 9.5% of the total road accidents across the country, is third among states. With 13.9% of the total accidents, Tamil Nadu tops the chart, followed by Madhya Pradesh (11.8 %).
Despite its relatively small geographical size, Kerala faces significant road safety issues, with a high incidence of crashes resulting in fatalities and injuries.
As per the figures made available by the State Crime Records Bureau, the number of accidents on the state roads increased from 36,000 in 2014 to 48,141 in 2023 and 48,919 in 2024.