Top priority to keep national highway corridors safe

State, executing agencies told to maintain roads properly to keep them motorable

Thiruvananthapuram,Kerala:: 07/01/2019::Early morning mist descended to the ground late into Monday morning with motorists negotiating the National Highway from Pappanamcode to Nemom having had to keep their headlights on until as late as 6.15 am. Thiruvananthapuram recorded a maximum (day) temperature of 33.1 deg C (above normal by +0.5 deg Celsius) while the minimum (night) was 20.5 deg Celsius (below normal by 1.9 deg Celsius) for the day, explaining the cold and the mist..............Photo: S.Gopakumar/The Hindu.






 



The State has been asked to focus more on road safety and to accord top priority to traffic-easing measures, patrolling in rural and urban areas and road-safety audit.

The directive from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has also asked the State to set up crash barriers and rectify black spots on national highways (NH).

The State and executing agencies have been reminded that all NH corridors are to be maintained properly so as to keep them in traffic-worthy condition.

In case of potholes, efforts need to be made for their repair within the stipulated time of 24-48 hours of detection.

Nine-point agenda

Repairs rehabilitation and reconstruction of dilapidated and narrow bridges have been spelled out in a nine-point agenda for enhancing road safety. The State has been told to instruct all executing agencies to ensure safety provisions in highways during the construction-stage itself.

The MORTH directive to the State Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary, Public Works and Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department is aimed at reducing the mounting fatalities on the NH corridors.

SC panel’s displeasure

In the communication, the MoRTH has pointed out that the Supreme Court committee on road safety during its various meetings has shown displeasure regarding the implementation of road-safety measures and sought steps to minimise road accidents on NH corridors.

Locations/stretches/intersections where traffic- calming measures are needed have to be identified and these measures have to be provided on urgent basis as per the guidelines of ‘IRC: 99-2018 Guidelines for traffic calming measures in urban and rural areas’.

For installing crash barriers, sensitive spots/stretches on hill roads and near waterbodies will be identified through a gap analysis.

The crash barrier needs to be properly maintained and in case of damages, replacements/repairs will have to be carried out in seven days.

Road safety audit of all NH corridors will have to be undertaken and follow-up action needs to be taken for implementation of the road safety audit recommendations. For bringing down fatalities, pedestrian facilities such as foot overbridges, underpasses and footpaths have been recommended.