The Supreme Court committee on road safety has taken strong exception to the Andhra Pradesh State Road Safety Council for not preparing individual district road safety profiles. It has pointed out that only four of the 13 district road safety panels met twice in each quarter up to June 2019, while the rest did not comply with it.
The judicial committee has directed that the district panels in the State must ready their respective road safety profiles by the month-end.
In an attempt to meet the September 30 deadline fixed by the apex court committee to prepare and publish the ‘district road safety profile’, the Anantapur panel, which did not meet after October 2019, hurriedly held a marathon meeting and discussed all the 23 aspects pointed out by the judicial panel. The district panel has proposed to hold a consultative meeting with all stakeholders within a week to finalise the district-specific strategy.
The MPs, MLAs and implementing agencies such as the RTA, police, municipality, and health officials would tour the Anantapur city to identify the problems before ascertaining corrective measures.
The judicial panel, in a letter to the State on July 27, took strong exception to the delay in setting up of the ‘lead agency’ and a road safety fund that receives money from all penalties collected for the violators of traffic norms.
Spurt in fatalities
The lakhs of rupees collected as penalties during the lockdown imposed in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic need to be utilised for implementing road safety measures in specific districts.
The Supreme Court panel has also expressed concern over the increase in fatalities on the National Highways in Andhra Pradesh. The fatalities which was 58.43% of total in 2017 went up to 63.87% in 2018 (38.76% on NHs and 25.11% on SHs). The panel held the Police Department responsible for not effectively enforcing accident prevention measures.
On the 260-km stretch including 170 km in Anantapur district between Bagepalli-Kodikonda checkpost on the Karnataka border to Lingala checkpost in Kurnool district along the inter-State border of Telangana, the police and RTA need to check accidents, the panel observed.
In Anantapur, the district committee under the chairmanship of Collector Gandham Chandrudu has identified 14 junctions that either need ‘traffic calming’ measures, or engineering correction. The panel also discussed setting up traffic signals, speed breakers, regulating traffic flow, travel in the wrong direction, and improvement of bridges. The Tapovanam junction on the NH- 44 in Anantapur district was identified as the worst, followed by the junction opposite Pennar Bhavan, Pangal Road, Rudrampeta flyover beginning, the junction at the GGH flyover.
Traffic aid posts would be set up on the NH and the toll plazas at Marur and Kasepalli (Gooty) on NH-44 in Anantapur district. The panel observed that the authorities should have been active in implementing road safety measures.
