Haryana Police launches major initiative to curb accidents on NH-44

In an event to mark the observance of Road Safety Week in Haryana, the Director-General of Police of the state, Manoj Yadava on Tuesday launched an initiative to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities in road accidents on the 187 km stretch from Kundli (Sonipat) to Shambhu Border (Ambala) on National Highway 44.

The DGP said that the idea is to make NH-44 world-class from the safety point of view so that it could be a role model for the entire country. With this the burden of road crash injuries and fatalities at NH-44 passing through five districts of Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Ppat and Sonipat can be reduced, he added.

A multi-stakeholder meeting was held under the chairmanship of DGP Yadava at the Haryana Police Academy (HPA), Madhuban today.

The meeting was attended by the Project Directors and other officials of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), PWD (B & R) Haryana, Transport Department, Haryana and Road Safety Engineers of (IRTE), Faridabad led by Dr Rohit Baluja.

Range IGs of Ambala, Karnal and Rohtak Ranges, SPs of NH-44 districts - Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Ppat and Sonipat - also attended the meeting.

Under this initiative, Haryana Police has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IRTE under which the latter will conduct a detailed Road Safety Audit of this 187 KM stretch of NH-44 passing through Haryana and will submit a detailed action plan for road engineering-related improvements including fixation of speed limits and installation of road signages and road markings coupled with a plan for focused accident prevention through better enforcements and awareness of all categories of road users.

On this occasion, Baluja informed that this portion of NH-44 had witnessed 743 deaths in 2018 which makes it the most accident-prone highway in India. "In fact, the number of people who died in these road accidents in one year is more than the total number of persons who die every year in the entire Netherlands and even in the UAE. The bulk of these people who lost their lives are either pedestrians, cyclists and two-wheeler drivers," Baluja said.

Safety of people, the behaviour of people on road, faulty overtaking, identification of black spots, scientific construction approach, intensifying the enforcement measures, to hold road contractors, consultants or concessionaires accountable for faulty road design under section 198 A of MV (Amendment) Act were also discussed in the meeting.

Addressing the meeting, the DGP informed that the most significant and the noblest tasks before the Police and other agencies were to carry out traffic awareness and traffic enforcement in a manner that serves to save lives of people who are dying in road accidents. The DGP said that for this purpose, the Police Department will work actively to implement the recommendations emerging out of the Road Safety Audit being done by IRTE with the help of NHAI and Transport Department, Haryana.

He announced that a network of Speed Radars, Automatic Number Plate Readers (ANPRs) and Cameras will be installed on NH-44 which will be connected to a Centralized Control Room to initiate a crackdown on dangerous driving, over speeding and unsafe lane changing.

Describing training of police personnel as an important aspect of road safety, the DGP said HPA will impart road safety and crash investigation training to 50 police personnel every month. He also sought cooperation from the IRTE team in this regard.

"A well-planned and co-ordinated awareness drive will be launched in association with Haryana Roadways, Punjab Roadways, Himachal Pradesh Roadways, Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) and more than 20 Transport compes to ensure that heavy vehicles use only the left-most lane which is meant for heavy vehicles. Further, all illegal and unauthorized cuts in the Central median on NH-44 will be closed as they are leading to multiple accidents," Yadava said.

In addition, Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) or Under Passes will be constructed at points where a large number of pedestrians are required to cross the National Highway particularly at busy points in Sonipat and Ppat.

This slew of initiatives will be started within next two months with a pilot project on the first 10 km of NH - 44 from Kundli to Rai to showcase the initiative and subsequently it will be extended to the entire NH - 44.

( With inputs from ANI )