DEHRADUN: A few ‘black spots’ that are prone to accidents could get a facelift for the safety of motorists, said transport minister Yashpal Arya.
Arya for the first time attended a public hearing and redressal event at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office on Thursday. On the sidelines of the programme, he told Hindustan Times that the road engineering department would take up repair of sensitive spots wherever necessary. “Highly sensitive spots will get a facelift. We know some of the spots have repeated accidents due to unsafe incline. Therefore, we will work on renovating those spots,” Arya told HT, adding safety signboards would be put up to alert the people about the danger spots.
While the transport department identified over 900 black spots, the repair process was still underway with the help of the Public Works Department. The minister will attend meeting with officers on Friday in this regard.
According to official statistics, 1,410 accidents were reported in 2014 with 878 fatalities and 1,531 injured victims. This went up with 1,523 accidents, 913 mortality and 1,657 injury cases in 2015. The next year saw 1,591 accidents, 962 deaths and 1,735 injuries.
Nearly 5% increase in accidental mortality was reported in first quarter of this year, says a report of the transport department. Between January and March 2016, 397 accidents were reported in which 224 people died. This shot up to 356 incidents in which 234 deaths were reported. Haridwar, US Nagar, Dehradun and Nainital districts top the list of accidents and fatalities. As per official estimates, nearly 77.50% accidents are reported from these four districts.
The Supreme Court had directed the government to ensure meetings of the State Road Safety Council, which has members representing education, health, police, agriculture, forest and other departments. But, due to non-availability of officers from other departments, the Council could not be constituted. A corpus is also being
created to support the families of victims, Arya said.
The Supreme Court had directed the government to ensure meetings of the State Road Safety Council, which has members representing education, health, police, agriculture, forest and other departments. But, due to non-availability of officers from other departments, the Council could not be constituted. A corpus is also being
created to support the families of victims, Arya said.
A dedicated awareness programme would begin from next month. Through Council officers, the minister plans to organise seminars in each of the districts besides taking help from theatre groups. “We are about to start an extensive awareness programme from the next month which will feature a number of events,” he added.