TN has most accident-prone zones on highways in India: Centre
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu has the most ‘black spots’ (accident-prone locations on roads) on National Highways, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) has said. According to a recent reply in the Lok Sabha by Union minister Nitin Gadkari, Tamil Nadu topped the list with 748 black spots, followed by West Bengal (701) and Karnataka (551). The minister said that temporary measures have been taken on 5,167 black spots while 2,923 have been permanently rectified.
Block spots are identified by the Transport Research Wing (TRW) of MORTH based on the fatality rates and accident data submitted by States. A black spot is an approximately 500 m stretch of a National Highway wherein either five major road accidents or 10 fatalities took place in the last three years. These spots are considered an indication of poor road design and inadequate road safety measures.
Though the State has this dubious distinction, official sources claimed that fatality rates had been declining for the past three years owing to measures taken by the Transport department.While 19,583 road accidents took place in the State in 2018, the figure dropped to 17,633 in 2019, and 15,269 in 2020. “Temporary rectification measures had been taken on all the black spots. NHAI; the State Highways; and the departments of transportation, police, and local bodies have been told to expedite road-safety works. Driving licences of traffic violators have been suspended and hefty penalties collected from repeated offenders,” said a transport official.
The construction of major and minor bridges, widening of roads, removal of encroachments, and other permanent road safety measures have been proposed across the State. “Work is on in different stages in many places. Also, five bridges have been proposed in accident-prone places on the Chennai-Tiruchy NH,” said a Highways department official.