The state capital Lucknow achieved the maximum reduction in number of road accidents as well as accident fatalities among India’s 50 cities with a million-plus population in 2021 compared to the year 2020, says a report released last week by the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH).
Lucknow, however, still remained among the top cities that reported a high number of accidents and deaths in the country.
Barring Varanasi that witnessed a marginal decrease in the number of mishaps but an increase in number of deaths, all other million-plus cities—Agra, Prayagraj, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Meerut in U.P. -- recorded an increase in both road accidents and deaths in the same year.
As per MoRTH’s analytical annual report, ‘Road Accidents in India 2021’, the traffic crashes and resultant deaths in Lucknow declined by 156 and 113, respectively, in 2021 as compared to 2020. The decline was the highest among all the million-plus cities followed by Rajkot and Asansol-Durgapur in road accidents and Asansol-Durgapur and Kollam in terms of fatalities.
In 2020, Lucknow reported 946 accidents and 374 deaths, but the number came down to 790 and 261 respectively in 2021, the decrease being by 1.6% and 30.2%, respectively.
{{/usCountry}}In 2020, Lucknow reported 946 accidents and 374 deaths, but the number came down to 790 and 261 respectively in 2021, the decrease being by 1.6% and 30.2%, respectively.
{{/usCountry}}The number of road accidents and fatalities has increased in all the million-plus cities except Amritsar, Asansol-Durgapur, Lucknow, Raipur, Rajkot and Vadodara in 2021 as compared to 2020.
“Road accidents tend to be concentrated in urban areas because of dense population and road traffic congestion. These cities with a population of 10 lakh and above are spread across 17 States and 2 UTs. In 2021, a total of 67,301 road accidents were recorded in the 50 one million-plus cities which resulted in loss of 15,350 lives and caused injuries to 58,758 persons,” the report reveals.
“As compared to 2020, there is an increase in the number of road accidents, persons killed and injured recorded in 2021 in these cities. But accident severity, i.e., accident deaths per 100 road accidents, has gone down by 22.8. In 2021, these 50 cities accounted for 16.3% of the total of accidents and 9.9% of total fatalities in the country,” it added.
Chennai has recorded the highest number of accidents in 2021, followed by Delhi and Jabalpur being at the third place.
The top 10 cities comprising Chennai, Delhi, Jabalpur, Indore, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Vizaq, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Jaipur accounted for 47.7% of the total road accidents.
At the bottom are Dhanbad, Jamshedpur and Amritsar.
The total number of accident deaths increased from 13,542 in 2020 to 15,350 in 2021. It was an increase of 13.4% relative to same period last year, which is higher than the all- India average increase of 16.9 per cent.
“All million plus cities, except Amritsar, Asansol Durgapur, Kolkata, Kollam, Lucknow, Raipur, Rajkot, Srinagar and Vadodara, recorded an increase in the number of accident deaths during 2021 as compared to 2020,” the report said.
From 2017 to 2021, the top-10 million-plus cities have been sharing more than 43.13% of the total road accident fatalities in India.
“Micro analysis of such cities shows a decline in the incidence of accident fatalities from 2018 onwards in cities like Delhi, Chennai, Kanpur, Allahabad (Prayagraj) and Agra. Indore city shows a marked declined in fatalities, decreasing 5.4% in 2021 over 2020. In respect of Raipur city, the total number of fatalities has been showing a slightly decreasing trend during 2017 to 2021. However, Chennai city registered consistent decline in the growth of accident death during 2017 to 2020 and marginal increase in 2021 over 2020,” the report noted.
According to the report, the trends of causes of accidents in million plus cities broadly match the trends seen at the all-India level.
U.P. as a whole recorded the highest share i.e. 13.8% of accident deaths (21,227) in the country in 2021 as well followed by Tamil Nadu with a share of 10% (15,384 killed), Maharashtra with of 8.8% (13,528 killed), and Madhya Pradesh with share of 7.8% (12,057 killed).
In terms of the number of occurrence of accidents, U.P. was behind several other states. Tamil Nadu maintained its top position for the fourth consecutive year in 2021 with 55,682 (13.5%) accidents followed by Madhya Pradesh with 48,877 (11.8%) and Uttar Pradesh with 37, 729 (9.1%).