Black Spots on National Highways
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 2, 2016
More than 1.4 lakh people lost their lives in road accidents in 2014. In a bid to reduce the number of fatalities and make roads safer, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has identified more than 700 black spots across the national highways in the country and has accorded priority to each of the black spots based on the number of fatalities.
More than 1.4 lakh people lost their lives in road accidents in the country in 2014. Making roads safer is on the priority list for the government and towards this end, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has identified 726 black spots on various national highways and Rs 11,000 crore have been earmarked to address this problem.
More than 700 black spots across the country
MoRTH has identified more than 700 black spots across the country on various National Highways. These spots have been identified based on the fatalities data from the year 2011 to 2013. All the identified black spots have been accorded a priority based on the three year fatality figure.
Out of the 700 odd black spots identified by the Ministry, 495 are priority 5, 154 are priority 4, 32 are priority 3, 19 are priority 2 and 18 are priority 1. Seven (7) black spots are accorded special priority as these are old black spots.
Most Black Spots on NH 2
NH 2 between Delhi and Kolkata has the most number of black spots (59). NH 8 between Delhi & Mumbai comes second with 45 black spots. NH 44 in the North East between Nongstoin & Sabroom has 3 highest number of black spots (38). NH 4, NH 45, NH 47, NH 7, NH 6, NH 28 and NH 24 are in the top 10 in terms of number of black spots. Eighteen (18) different national highways have 10 or more black spots each.
Most black spots in Tamil Nadu and UP
Of the states, Tamil Nadu has 100 of the identified black spots while Uttar Pradesh has 99 of them. Karnataka is 3 with 86 black spots followed by Telangana with 71 black spots. Rajasthan is the only other state with more than 50 black spots. Fourteen (14) different states have more than 25 black spots each. Of the bigger states, Andhra Pradesh has the least number of black spots (8).
Only these 9 states have priority 1 & priority 2 black spots
The 37 black spots of priority 1 and priority 2 are spread across nine different states. Of the 18 priority 1 black spots, 11 are in Tamil Nadu, 5 are in Uttar Pradesh and 1 each in Nagaland and Meghalaya. Of the 19 priority 2 black spots, 8 are in Tamil Nadu, 3 are in Uttar Pradesh, 2 each in Kerala and Meghalaya and 1 each in Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Orissa and Rajasthan.
These are the MPs with most black spots in their constituencies
If the black spots are mapped to various parliamentary constituencies, there are 17 such MPs with more than 10 black spots in their constituency. A P Jithender Reddy, the MP from Mahbubnagar in Telangana has the highest number of black spots in his constituency (31). Ramcharan Bohra from Jaipur in Rajasthan has 17 black spots in his constituency.
What is being done at these black spots?
The black spots in the order of priority have to be inspected by a committee of the concerned NH division in whose jurisdiction the black spot is falling. The committee should examine the concerned black spot and identify if there are any road related deficiencies which might have been the cause of repeated accidents. While identifying the limits of the black spot stretch, generally a maximum length up to 1km should be considered for assessing the road related contributing factors causing repeated accidents/fatalities at a particular black spot.
The committee should also hold discussions with the local police to identify the causes for repeated accidents. After these discussions, various short term and long term measures are to be taken up to reduce the number of such accidents. Short term measures like signs/markings etc are to be immediately taken up. For any long term remedial measure, it must be ascertained if enough land is available for such a measure and the proposals are to be sent for approval.
Additional inputs & analysis by K Yeshwanth Reddy