Fatalities dip on 16 corridors

This year, 444 people killed on zero-tolerance stretches; last year 501. Subhendu Ray reports.

Exactly one year ago, the Delhi traffic police had identified 16 corridors in the Capital as zero-tolerance areas for road norm violations. Though the number of fatalities on these roads has dropped by 57 this year, the police are yet to achieve their goal.

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This year, 444 people have lost their lives on the zero tolerance stretches, while the toll was 501 last year. The stretches where fatalities have reduced include part of Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Mathura Road, national highways 8 and 24 and Vikas Marg, among others. However, the number of deaths has increased on some roads, including Aurobindo Marg, Sardar Patel Marg and Bhishma Pitamah Marg.

Despite the Delhi traffic police’s apparently impressive plans to enforce no-tolerance on lane driving violations and pay concentration on bus stop and intersection managements in the city, the project seems to have hardly tamed the regular Delhi driver.

“Though we have achieved some positive results this year, we need to improve our focus on these corridors,” said a police officer.

JCP (traffic) Satyendra Garg, however, said, “On some corridors, the number of fatalities has dropped significantly and that has been possible due to the strict prosecutions of the defaulters.” On others, ‘strict prosecutions’ was not of any use.

Sources said in many areas, motorists frequently violate norms as there are hardly any police personnel deployed to keep a check on errant drivers, even during peak morning and evening hours.

“We have prosecuted 85,000 violators since January. Of them, around 66,000 were prosecuted for improper parking, over 13,000 for lane violations and over 4,000 for red-light jumping, among others,” Garg said.