The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry said that road safety measures are adopted on National Highways (NHs) in accordance with Indian Roads Congress (IRC) standards/guidelines on road safety at all stages of project implementation, i.e., design stage, construction stage, pre-opening stage and operations stage.
Road safety provisions are implemented as integral part of project during widening to 2/4/6 lane, construction of new bypasses, greenfield expressways and also as standalone measures eg. improvement of junctions, provision of crash barriers, provision of Vehicular under Pass, (VUP), provision of elevated flyovers, widening in urban/built-up areas, replacement/widening of narrow culverts and bridges, etc. based on road safety audit reports as per site conditions.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari mentioned the above in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. He said that the ministry has formulated a multi-pronged strategy to address the issue of road safety based on Education, Engineering (both of roads and vehicles), Enforcement and Emergency Care.
The strategy stated that state governments should ensure that appropriate electronic enforcement devices are placed at high-risk and high-density corridors on national highways and state highways, and at critical junctions at least in major cities with more than one million population (as per data available based on Million Plus Urban Agglomerations or Cities: census of India 2011 or as per the latest census) including the 132 non-attainment cities (under National Clean Air Programme), and the electronic enforcement device shall be placed in such a manner so as not to cause any obstruction, line of-sight issues or interruption in traffic flow.
The Union minister's written reply comes in the wake of the major road tragedy in Manipur's Noney district on Wednesday. A bus carrying girl students of Thambalnu Higher Secondary School, Yairipok, on a study tour rolled off a cliff at Tonjil Maril Road at Longshai village in Noney district, Manipur, Northeast India around 11 am Wednesday. The tragedy claimed seven lives and left 35 others injured.
The road stretch is said to be accident prone as the concerned authorities are yet to repair the deplorable road condition, according to the villagers.
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