20 deadly traffic junctions to be redesigned to make them safer | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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20 deadly traffic junctions to be redesigned to make them safer

ByMegha Sood
Apr 07, 2023 12:45 AM IST

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will redesign 20 of the deadliest traffic intersections in Mumbai with technical assistance from Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) partners to make them safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. The junctions include Amar Mahal, Sion Circle, Kings Circle, National Park, and Priyadarshini, all of which are considered black spots for the high number of accidents reported. The BMC will utilize infrastructure interventions such as widening pedestrian crossings and sidewalks, adding new refuge areas, and implementing traffic calming measures.

MUMBAI: Twenty deadliest traffic intersections in the city will be redesigned by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to make them safer, especially for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists, who are considered most vulnerable to road accidents.

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The junctions that would be taken up for redesigning include Amar Mahal, Sion Circle, Kings Circle, National Park, Cheda Nagar, Priyadarshini, which are termed as black spots (see box) for the high number of accidents reported from these juntions.

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The BMC will carry out the redesigning with technical assistance from Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) partners, including the Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) and the World Resources Institute (WRI). The announcement was made on Thursday in a meeting between civic officials and the representatives of the BIGRS partners.

In three years — 2019, 2020 and 2021— 132 people were killed and 429 seriously injured at these 20 black spots in the city. Amar Mahal junction in Ghatkopar turned out to be the most dangerous where 24 people were killed in road accidents and 46 seriously injured in these three years. In the second spot is the intersection of Eastern Express Highway and Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road in Kanjurmarg East where 13 people died and 47 were severely injured.

A crash analysis report, prepared jointly by BIGRS partners, the BMC and the traffic police, highlighted that the vulnerable road users — pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and three-wheeler occupants accounted for 90% of road crash deaths in Mumbai in 2022. The largest group of road users killed in crashes in 2022 were, however, pedestrians and two-wheeler riders constituting 80%.

According to the data, in 2022, 161 pedestrians were killed in road crashes in the city, as compared to 148 in 2020.

WRI India and GDCI have surveyed the black spots in 2021-22 and are now preparing designs to upgrade the infrastructure of these junctions and roads to reduce the accidents.

To make the junctions safe to navigate, the civic body and the private partners will utilise varied infrastructure interventions like widening pedestrian crossings and sidewalks, the addition of new refuge areas to reduce crossing distances, and traffic calming measures including speed breakers, and rumble strips.

The meeting, which concluded on Thursday, was attended by BMC deputy commissioner Ulhas Mahale, chief engineer (Roads and Traffic) Manish Kumar Patel and after concluding the meeting, experts and foreign dignitaries visited and inspected five black spots in the city and reviewed various measures undertaken by the BMC at those spots.

“These locations are a priority since they record a high number of deaths and injuries compared to other locations in the city. We will introduce design changes at these locations to reduce the number of crashes and save lives. BMC engineers are working along with the BIGRS partners to transform these junctions.” said Mahale.

Dhawal Ashar, program head, Integrated Transport, WRI India, a partner under the BIGRS, said, “Providing adequate pedestrian infrastructure allows people to walk, stop and cross safely, thereby reducing the number of times they come in direct conflict with vehicles.

“This means designing for pedestrians will make the street 1. Safer for all road users, 2. Reduce conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles and 3. Also, smoothen and streamline traffic flow.” WRI, India is working with the BMC on 12 junctions, including Amar Mahal.

Abhimanyu Prakash, regional lead, Asia and Africa, GDCI, a partner under BIGRS, said, “In collaboration with BMC, we at GDCI are rethinking the possibilities at these high-risk locations based on principles from the Global Street Design Guide, a set of design guidelines officially endorsed by and for the city of Mumbai.

“The toolkit of strategies being applied include widening pedestrian crossings and sidewalks, adding new refuge areas, and implementing traffic calming measures such as speed humps, and rumble strips.

“Additionally, lane alignment and narrowing will be applied at select locations to not only make the streets safer but also smoothen traffic flows. In line with our long-term goal of reducing road crashes in the city, we are complementing these interventions with trainings for BMC engineers and with the Mumbai traffic police department to equip staff with the knowledge of fundamentals of safe and sustainable street designs.”

BOX:

Black Spot: According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, a blackspot is a stretch of 500m of an urban road or state or national highway where in past three consecutive years — 5 serious road crashes or crashes that led to the death have taken place and cumulatively resulted in 10 or more deaths.

List of 20 high-risk spots:

1. Amar Mahal Junction, Tilak Nagar, Ghatkopar

2. Intersection of EEH and JVLR, Kanjurmarg (East)

3. Intersection of WEH and Sion Bandra Link Road at Kalanagar Junction, Bandra (East)

4. Intersection of WEH and Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Santacruz (East)

5. Intersection of Ghatkopar Andheri Link Road and EEH, Ghatkopar (East)

6. Priyadarshini Junction, Chembur

7. Intersection of WEH and JVLR, Jogeshwari (East)

8. Intersection of Eastern Freeway and Ghatkopar - Mankhurd Link Road, Govandi (West)

9. Sion Circle Junction, Sion (West)

10. Intersection of WEH and Akurli Road, Kandivali (East)

11. Intersection of WEH and Goregaon Mulund Link Road, Goregaon (East)

12. King Circle Junction, Matunga (East)

13. Intersection of WEH and N.S.Phadke Marg, Andheri (East)

14. Intersection of Santacruz Chembur Link Road and LBS Road, Kurla (West)

15. Intersection of Sion Panvel Highway and Ghatkopar - Mankhurd Link Road, Mankhurd

16. Chedda nagar junction, Ghatkopar (East)

17. Sanjay Gandhi National Park Junction, Borivali (East)

18. Sakinaka Junction, Andheri (East)

19. Intersection of WEH and SV Road, Dahisar (East)

20. Intersection of Ghatkopar - Andheri Link Road and LBS Road

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