10 arterial roads to be revamped to curb accidents in Delhi

Speeding was identified as a major cause of deaths in road accidents, and the report recommends safer pedestrian facilities and traffic calming measures.

The Delhi government’s transport department has begun implementing road design changes at 10 arterial road stretches, mostly in north Delhi, to curb fatal accidents based on the data gathered between 2019 and 2021, officials aware of the matter have said.

According to the report, the 18 crash hot spots were identified based on the number of high fatalities between 2019 and 2021. (HT Archive)

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Seven of these stretches and intersections featured in a list of 18 crash spots or black spots collated in a report titled “Delhi Road Safety Report: Data to Action”, prepared by the transport department in collaboration with the Delhi Traffic Police with technical support by international organisations such as the Bloomberg Philanthropies,the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins and the International Injury Research Unit of IIT-Delhi.

The report was prepared in 2022 with data from three years—2019, 2020 and 2021. The findings were released by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in January, wherein the intersection redesign project was announced. Officials designated agencies, that conducted initial surveys and prepared new designs that are now being implemented.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India already accounts for 22% of the fatal crashes in the world each year.¹ Road traffic crashes cost India between three to five percent of its GDP, the report said. In 2021, the number of fatalities due to road accidents in Delhi totalled 1,239, an increase from 1,196 fatalities in the previous year, it said.

Officials said in addition to the seven stretches that appeared in the original list, three have been chosen from north-east, north-west and south Delhi that are characterised by heavy traffic volumes and vulnerable to accidents.

The 10 spots chosen by the government in the first phase are: Mukarba Chowk, Madhuban Chowk, Powerhouse Pitampura, Mukundpur Circle, the intersection of Outer Ring Road and Wazirabad Road near Signature Bridge, Mangolpuri flyover and Burari Chowk (all in north Delhi, part of the list of 18) and Usmanpur Road near the fifth pushta, Bhalswa Chowk and Gandhi Vihar bus depot.

The designs for Mukarba Chowk, Madhuban Chowk and Usmanpur Road are being prepared by World Resources Institute India while Powerhouse Pitampura and Mangolpuri flyover are being redesigned by Global Designing Cities Initiative. The rest of the five intersections are being redesigned by SaveLIFE Foundation.

“Some of the interventions that are being made include making the roundabouts tighter, reducing waste of road space by turning them into traffic islands, broadening footpath space for walking and cycling, making table top road crossings that are away from intersections and easily accessible for all. Some intersections had specific issues like ongoing construction work at Mukarba Chowk that has also been kept in mind to reduce crashes. Issues related to better lighting have also been marked,” said a transport department official who asked not to be named.

According to the report, the 18 crash hot spots were identified based on the number of high fatalities between 2019 and 2021. These include Mukarba Chowk (19 deaths), Majnu Ka Tila-Outer Ring Road Stretch (16), near Signature Bridge (16), Azadpur Chowk (15), Punjabi Bagh Chowk (12), Nirankari Chowk (12), Burari Chowk (12), Seelampur Chowk (12 ), Ghazipur roundabout (10 ) and Shivaji Park Metro Station (10), among others.

A senior Public Works Department (PWD) official said the government’s list for making city roads safer by introducing design changes is more exhaustive and features 30 black spots. “Under our road safety initiative, we are working on reducing crashes by redesigning 30 black spots across Delhi. We have taken up 10 such spots for now and will add more,” the PWD official said.

The Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) defines black spots as areas with more than 10 deaths within a radius of 250 metres in three years.

“The designs for these 10 spots are ready and will be implemented by PWD. Tenders have been floated for seven intersections and work has already started at some of the intersections, such as Mukarba Chowk, Madhuban Chowk, Powerhouse Pitampura, Mukundpur Circle, the intersection of Outer Ring Road and Wazirabad Road near Signature Bridge, Burari Chowk and Bhalswa Chowk, and we are in the process of floating tenders for three other spots,” said a senior transport department official.

The road redesign will be done by three expert agencies while the changes will be implemented by PWD, officials said. PWD officials, meanwhile, said that the design changes can only be discussed after the initial site inspection.

According to the transport department, the timeline for the remaining hot spots will be decided based on the pace and completion of work on the first 10 stretches.

The report identified speeding as one of major cause of deaths in road accidents. It said that every 1% increase in average speed increases the risk of a serious crash by 3% and a fatal crash by 4%. However, a reduction of average speed by 5% confers a substantial benefit to safety by a 30% reduction in fatalities.

In terms of road design, the report suggests safer pedestrian facilities, traffic calming measures, and realignment of the roadbed for safer and more efficient movement of all road users.

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Piyush Tewari, CEO and founder, SaveLIFE Foundation, said, “As part of the process to reduce fatalities on Delhi streets, we adopted multiple intersections. We carried out nearly seven studies to identify issues. We used cameras powered with artificial intelligence to map out the conflict between different road user groups at those intersections and we were also able to study the status of the current infrastructure that was either perpetuating such conflict or failing to reduce the conflict. Following that, the tactical urbanism team redesigned these intersections with paint and soft barricading.”

He added, “Based on the study we were able to determine the exact nature of redesign required. For instance, at Bhalaswa Chowk, pedestrians were exposed to around 270 metres of oncoming traffic that the redesign reduced to under 73 metres, ensuring that the pedestrians were exposed to less traffic while navigating the intersections. Such interventions enabled reduction in deaths, and we are happy that these changes are being made permanent now.”