Police, NHAI pass buck

The fatal accident involving a stationary truck on the highway has led to a blame game between the city police and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

The fatal accident involving a stationary truck on the highway has led to a blame game between the city police and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

HT Image

According to the NHAI, the police have failed to check random parking of vehicles on the highway. “We have written several letters to Gurgaon police to address this issue. Vehicles parked on service lane and on the highway put the life of the commuters at risk. Several incidents took place but no concrete action has been taken by the police,” said a senior official of NHAI.

The official said that vehicles are usually parked randomly at Iffco Chowk, Shankar Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk and sometime near Kherki Daula toll plaza and Delhi toll plaza. Such vehicles have been a major cause of accidents, especially during night.

Police, on the other hand, said that they have taken several steps to stop illegal parking. “We impose fine and even impound vehicles parked illegally on the roadside,” said Bharti Arora, DCP traffic, Gurgaon. She, however, said that it is the responsibility of the road operator to remove wrongly-parked vehicles.

“The operators of the expressway and other toll plazas are having their dedicated teams to detect such vehicles. It is their responsibility to ask their drivers to remove the vehicle. If a driver does not remove the vehicle, they should have informed the police,” said Arora.