Set up hospitals on both sides of expressways, ban liquor shops along highways: CM

Emphasises inter-departmental coordination to curb accidents, says road safety committee meetings must be held monthly at district levels and quarterly at divisional levels.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath said hospitals should be set up on both sides of expressways similar to food plazas to ensure immediate medical assistance for road accident victims. He called for the establishment of trauma centres, along with deployment of ambulances and trained medical staff, at hospitals in all divisional headquarters.

(File)

The CM also ordered strict action against illegal vehicles and overloaded trucks, a ban on liquor shops on highways and expressways, and a crackdown on minors operating e-rickshaws.

Chairing a meeting of the Uttar Pradesh State Road Safety Council here on Sunday, Adityanath emphasised inter-departmental coordination to curb accidents, and stressed that road safety committee meetings must be held monthly at district levels and quarterly at divisional levels.

He directed officials to rectify accident-prone black spots, install surveillance cameras on all NHAI roads, and increase the number of cranes, patrolling vehicles, and ambulances.

Reviewing accident data, the CM noted that 46,052 road accidents occurred in 2024, resulting in over 24,000 fatalities and 34,600 injuries. He identified overspeeding, drunken and wrong-way driving, jumping signals, and mobile phone use as the leading causes for the mishaps.

To enhance public awareness, he instructed the integration of traffic rules into school curricula under the basic and secondary education departments. He also mandated verifying e-rickshaw drivers and keeping regional transport offices (RTOs) free from middlemen.

The CM called for foot overbridges at critical points on NHAI roads, better traffic management using trained personnel from the civil police, PRD, and Home Guard, and the construction of table-top speed breakers near hospitals, schools, and markets.

He stated that in 2024, out of 75 districts in the state, 20 districts—namely Hardoi, Mathura, Agra, Lucknow, Bulandshahr, Kanpur Nagar, Prayagraj, Sitapur, Unnao, Barabanki, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bareilly, Aligarh, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Shahjahanpur, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Badaun, Meerut, and Bijnor—recorded the most fatalities in road accidents. These districts accounted for 42 percent of the total accident-related deaths in the state.

To address this issue, he instructed officials to identify the causes of accidents and enhance public awareness about road safety.

He further directed divisional commissioners and district magistrates to hold road safety committee meetings regularly and address the high number of fatalities in the 20 identified districts.