Ranjan Mukherjee, Director – Roads and Road Transport, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, New Delhi, inspected the Salem – Thoppur stretch of the Karur – Salem – Bengaluru national highway on Thursday to undertake development and improvement works to check accident rate.
Kaamalapuram, R. C. Settipatti, Pannapatti, Puliampatti, Teevattipatti, Jodukuli and Thoppur are some of the accident-prone spots on this road stretch which is to a length of about 30 km.
Recently, eight persons were killed and 36 suffered injuries in a bus and lorry collision at Toppur, following which people demanded construction of a flyover here to avert fatal accidents.
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J. Meghanath Reddy, Sub-Collector, Mettur, inspected the accident prone spots on this stretch and held discussions with senior officials and police personnel on steps to be taken to prevent accidents and save lives.
The report on the need for undertaking improvement and development works on this stretch was also forwarded to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Meanwhile, the NHAI also studied the problem and collected data of accidents and loss of human lives on this stretch over a period of five years.
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Priority
The stretch between Omalur and Teevattipatti was identified as ‘black spot’ due to frequent accidents and as such it was decided to accord priority to it in undertaking the development works.
Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, accompanied by T. V. Sivaji, Project Director, NHAI, and M. Ramkumaran, manager-technical, NHAI, inspected the ‘black spot’ stretch.
They held discussion with the Regional Transport Officer and police officials on the accident rate and the development works to be launched to ensure safety of people.