Expressway flaws must be corrected

The recently inaugurated Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway has virtually turned into a death trap with major accidents taking place with unfailing regularity. According to a report compiled by ADGP (Traffic and Road Safety) Alok Kumar, 136 people have died and over 335 have been injured in some 296 accidents on the highway between January and June this year. The report notes that the highest number of casualties have occurred on the stretch of the highway between Mandya and Ramanagara. The stretch between Channapatna and Mandya, which is curvilinear and consists of undulations, is the most accident-prone part. The authorities have blamed reckless driving for the accidents. That’s partly true, but there are also complaints about design flaws in the expressway.

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While the highway is designed for the highest speed of 120 kmph, the speed limit has now been fixed at 100 kmph. However, the police have found that many vehicles often exceed 140 kmph. When small cars do so, especially, they are difficult to control, putting these vehicles and their occupants at greater risk. Many motorists fail to pay attention to the condition of their vehicles’ tyres, leading to tyre bursts at high speeds, which also is a cause for accidents. More than these, however, it is the general failure to maintain lane discipline on highways that perhaps causes the most accidents and near-accidents. There is thus an urgent need to install advisory and warning signages to create better awareness among drivers. At the moment, the police have stationed interceptors to physically flag down speeding vehicles and impose fines, but this could only be counterproductive as that itself creates dangerous disruptions on an expressway. Advanced countries adopt technology and modern methods to check the menace of overspeeding on highways. The same should be deployed on the Mysuru-Bengaluru expressway, too.

While Mandya MP Sumalatha Ambarish had taken her complaint about the “unscientific” road to Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, the Karnataka government has decided to set up a technical committee to study various lapses in construction, including design flaws. There is no doubt that acute indiscipline and reckless driving are primary causes of accidents, but the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) needs to identify trouble spots which are also contributing factors. It should also ensure that the contractor sets up overbridges for pedestrians as mandated in the agreement and installs CCTVs to monitor violations. The unusually high number of accidents and deaths on this expressway is a clear indication that all is not well. This should serve as a wake-up call to the central and state governments, which should take immediate steps to make the road safer.