The traffic police are mulling to divert heavy vehicles via the Anandapuram-Anakapalli highway at Lankelapalem and Anandapuram in order to clamp down on rising accidents on the city stretch of the NH-16, which is heavily congested at several areas due to the lack of service roads.
This year, till September 20, 255 people were killed and 955 injured in accidents that occurred in the city limits. Of these, 92 people were killed on the NH-16 stretch passing through the city limits while 274 persons were injured.
The State Highway recorded 15 deaths and 87 injuries this year. Another 43 deaths occurred in road accidents on the BRTS corridors passing through the city.
Statistics suggest that heavy vehicles were involved in a majority of the accidents that occurred on the city stretch of NH-16.
“There are a very few number of cases in which the trucks ran over two-wheeler riders. In most of the cases, it is seen that the two-wheeler riders come under the wheels of the heavy vehicles while overtaking from the wrong side,” said a police officer.
In a bid to clamp down on the number of road accident deaths, the city police decided to begin restricting entry of heavy vehicles into the city as part of a pilot project for one week and divert them via the Anakapalli-Anandapuram highway. This restriction came into force only during peak traffic hours between 7 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. and 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.
After a week, the police were stunned by the findings.
“In the last one week, we have not recorded a single road accident involving heavy vehicles on NH-16. We want to take this forward and will try to implement this on a permanent basis to bring down road accidents on the city stretch of NH-16,” said Commissioner of Police Ch. Srikanth.
Lack of parking space a hurdle
The only roadblock for the proposal is a lack of parking space for trucks during the day in case they do not wish to travel the longer bypass route and wait till night to enter the city.
“There will be difficulties if the truck drivers wish to park their vehicles along the highway during the peak traffic hours. There won’t be any problem at Anandapuram as there is adequate space for parking. But at Lankelapalem, there is a shortage of parking space for which we need to coordinate with Anakapalli police and act accordingly,” Mr. Srikanth said.
The Police Department will be holding discussions with lorry associations and other stakeholders involved.
BRTS Corridor
Mr. Srikanth said that compared to the Gopalapatnam BRTS stretch, the Hanumanthuwaka-Adavivaram stretch reports fewer accidents. He said that the police have come across problems such as lack of proper illumination on the BRTS corridors. In many cases, accidents occurred due to sudden crossing of vehicles at medians. The police will coordinate with the GVMC to fix this issue, he said.
