THE TRIGGER
Widespread and angry public protests rocked India’s capital city Delhi after a horrific incident on January 1, 2023 where a 20-year-old woman died allegedly after her scooter was hit by a car. Her corpse was dragged by the vehicle for almost 13 km.
In the wee hours of Sunday, the woman, identified as Anjali Singh, who worked as an event planner, was returning home after work on her two-wheeler when a car allegedly hit her scooter and dragged her body for nearly one-and-a-half hours. The incident took place at North-West Delhi’s Sultanpuri and her body was dragged till Kanjhawala, which is about 13 km from where her scooter was hit, reports THE FIRST POST.ROAD ACCIDENT STATISTICS
THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS reports according to the
annual report on road accidents in India, 4.12 lakh accidents took place on
roads during 2021 in which 1.53 lakh people lost their lives and more than 3.84
lakh persons were injured. As per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
(MoRTH) findings, road accidents have decreased by 8.1 per cent and injuries
decreased by 14.8 per cent in 2021 compared to 2019. Fatalities, however, on
accounts of road accidents increased by 1.9 per cent in 2021 corresponding to
the same period in 2019.
NATURE OF ACCIDENTS
The noteworthy contributors to accidents on roads are
head-on collisions and hit-and-run cases. The ministry’s report says that
57,415 hit-and-run cases occurred in 2021 though, in 2020, the number of such
kinds of incidents was 52,448 in which 23,159 people were killed and 43, 789
people were injured. However, fatalities in 2021 due to hit-and-run cases were
25,938 and 45,355 persons were hurt. Head-on collisions in 2020 were 73,743,
which claimed 25,289 lives. And in the subsequent year, the number of head-on
collisions increased to 76,304 and fatalities were 27,248. A total of 1,997
road accidents occurred in 2021 due to the use of mobile phones while driving,
according to the ministry’s report titled ‘Road accidents in India--2021’,
reports THE LOGICAL INDIAN.
The Government has done an excellent job in road
construction. According to INVESTINDIA, the total road network in India
is 6.2 mn km comprising all categories of roads---national and state highways
and urban and rural roads. National Highways (NH) account for 2% of the total
road network and carry over 40% of total traffic. There has been a consistent
increase in the construction of NHs, with 13,327 kms being constructed in
2020-21, from 4,410 km of NH
construction in 2014-15. In the last 7 years, the length of NHs has gone up by
more than 50% from 91,287 km, as on April 2014, to 1,40,152 km now. The pace of
construction has increased more than 3 times, from 12 km per day in 2014-15 to
37 km per day in 2020-21.
GOVERNMENT’S AMBITIOUS TARGET
The Government has set an ambitious target in Budget 2022-23
of expanding the NH network by 25,000 kms over the fiscal year. The ministry’s
overall target is to develop 2 lakh kms of NHs network by 2025. The BharatMala
Pariyojana, launched in 2017, aims to build about 65,000 km of national and
economic corridors, border and coastal roads, and expressways, to optimize the
efficiency of already built highway infrastructure. It is envisaged that the
programme will provide 4-lane connectivity to 550 districts, develop 50
economic corridors of about 26,000 km, increase the vehicular speed by 20%-25%,
reduce the supply chain costs by 5%-6%, and improve the NH network to carry 70%-80%
of total road traffic. The first phase of the programme will develop 34,800 km of
highways, at an estimated outlay of INR 5,35,000 crore.
The GoI has given a massive push to infrastructure by
allocating about $1.4 Tn for infrastructure to be invested until 2025. The
government has forecasted an investment of $350 bn towards road infrastructure
in the North-East region of India during 2020-2025. The market for roads and
highways in India is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 36.16% during 2016-2025, on
account of growing government initiatives to improve transportation
infrastructure in the country. For the period of 2016-17 to 2021-22, the CAGR
stands at 20%. The highways sector in India has been at the forefront of
performance and innovation. The government has successfully rolled out over 60
road projects in India worth over $10 bn based on the Hybrid Annuity Model
(HAM). HAM has balanced risk appropriately between private and public partners
and boosted PPP activity in the sector.
ASSET RECYCLING
Asset recycling, through the toll-operate-transfer (ToT)
model has been taken up by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for
100 highways. The first two bundles of 9 highways each were monetized
successfully for an investment of over $2 bn. As one of the biggest reforms in
the road transportation industry in India, the NHAI has gone ‘Fully Digital’, with
the launch of a unique cloud-based and Artificial Intelligence-powered Big Data
Analytics platform – Data Lake and Project Management Software. The entire
project management work flow of NHAI is transformed from manual to online
portal based, wherein the complete project execution operations including
‘workflow with time lines’ and ‘alert mechanism’ have been configured. All
project documentation, contractual decisions and approvals are now being done
through portal only.
According to MOSTINDIA, if you are thinking about
line marking, chances are that you need information on how to keep a road safer
down the road too. A safe road is a godsend to use because it can reduce
accidents by a high percentage, and that is awesome for us too. It says that about
five things can be used to keep the road safer these days:
- · A roundabout should be built at any high-risk regional intersection out there because they are truly great for keeping people safe on the road too.
- · Using flexible barriers is truly important if we want to reduce the number of crashes on the roads these days all over the world too. These safety barriers should be installed on some of the most dangerous parts of any road out there too.
- · Sealed road shoulders are awesome because they truly provide you with a better surface when you pull over or even leave a road. Steering and breaking are easier when a road has sealed road shoulders these days too.
- · A rumble strip is just a partially-raised line that marks traffic lane on any road out there. When driven over, these rumble strips will cause the vehicle to vibrate. A safety edge will shape the edge of any pavement with an important 30-degree lip. This will prevent any driven vehicle from dropping off.
MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE ON ROAD SAFETY
Building excellent roads is important for the economy, but
it is not enough. The government should step in to make our roads and highways
safer and free from chaos, mayhem, and crime by stricter regulation for
breaking traffic rules and better policing. Even in our neighbourhood, Mayur
Vihar Phase 1 Extension, motorists both 2-wheelers and 4-wheelers hurtle away at
speeds of 80-kmph-100kmph on Sahakarita Marg and Sadbhawana Marg. Most notable
is the fact that these two roads are in a densely populated residential area.
No comments:
Post a Comment