NHAI identifies 19 locations for ‘black spot rectification’ work in next 2 yrs

Kolkata: The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has identified 19 locations on Barwadda-Panagarh Highway where black spot rectification work will be done in the next two years, the Chief General Manager at NHAI and Regional Officer (RO) SK Mishra said.

As per the discussion with the state government, this corridor is to be developed by the NHAI as a safe corridor targeting zero fatality. The NHAI has taken technical support from IIT Kharagpur for the same. The team identified lack of facilities for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users as the common safety deficiency at most blackspot locations.

“We have recommended grade separated facilities like pedestrian underpass, vehicular underpass at several locations as per the requirements. At a few places we have also recommended Foot over Bridges,” Professor Bhargab Maitra of IIT Kharagpur said.

At several other locations, the committee recommended short term improvements, including improvement of signage, marking and delineation, amongst others to enhance the safety of road users. The NHAI has upgraded this highway to a six-lane highway and taken several measures to improve the safety and mobility of traffic along this corridor. Therefore, the safety lacunas at several blackspot locations have already been addressed through infrastructure augmentation during widening of this road.

The team felt that it would be worth addressing not only the road engineering issues but also issues pertaining to location of bus stops, traffic management and target-oriented safety awareness campaigns and emergency response system as measures for developing this corridor as a zero-fatality corridor. Speeding was identified as a major safety issue on several segments of this stretch, according to the team.

“There are two aspects of road safety, including speed issues and administrative measures taken by the Transport department, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) and NHAI. From NHAI, we are concentrating on road safety issues and engineering interventions required for the same,” Mishra said, while speaking at the inauguration of speed management policy intervention and roadmap for its implementation for enhanced road safety.