The TS government is having grandiose plans for laying multiple lane roads across the districts connecting the capital but glaringly, but no road safety policy has been envisaged even as the number of persons killed in road accidents had reached 6,500 every year.
Having witnessed 43,048 road accidents in 2013, the united A.P. was in the third position after Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra in the country. Travel on roads was even more risky as it witnessed more deaths than Maharashtra which was bigger in area and had more number of vehicles.
Telangana with three districts less and nearly 1.4 crore lesser population than A.P., has witnessed nearly half the number of fatal road accidents of A.P. “It is an alarming sign. The TS government cannot afford to let it continue,” says road safety activist Adishankar.
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To achieve the cherished goal of ‘Bangaru Telangana’ (Golden Telangana), the government announced recently to lay multi-lane roads -- prerequisite of any development plan -- connecting all district headquarters with the capital. Unfortunately, safety of drivers, passengers or even pedestrians finds no mention in the road development plan.
Road safety involves several complexities – roads construction, vehicles condition, regulation by police and the Transport department. “Any haste in providing ‘better infrastructure’ of roads without caring for safety is dangerous and the blood bath on Telangana roads proves it,” says businessman V. Devaraj.
Blind curves, absence of dividers to avert head-on collisions, lack of glow signs, improper road designing, bad condition of roads and not using visible signage to guide drivers are contributing to accidents on trunk routes in the State.
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Certain stretches connecting Hyderabad outskirts with Siddipet, Karimnagar, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Nizamabad have become killer zones with frequent road crashes occurring involving multiple deaths. Still, there is no word on road safety audit.