Bengaluru

aerodrome

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike

Bangalore Development Authority

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PWD lists killer spots on 49 roads in Bengaluru; BBMP, BDA and NHAI will now work out remedial measuresIf your preservation instinct does not make you drive carefully on these roads, perhaps these statistics will. Data collected and submitted by thetraffic police to the Road Safety Department of the Public Works Department (PWD) have listed 49 roads in Bengaluru with black spots. The Nayandahalli Ring Road tops the list with the most number of accidents while the road near the Jakkurcomes on top for the most number of fatalities.Black spots are nothing but particular notorious stretches of roads where accidents recur. Of these 49 roads, about 37 roads are currently maintained by the(BBMP) and(BDA) and 12 roads are maintained by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).According to the list of roads with black spots, the Nayandahalli Ring Road has witnessed about 38 accidents and about 8 fatal accidents and the Jakkur aerodrome road has been witness to about 30 accidents with 17 fatal accidents. (See table for others)The report by BTP to the Planning and Road Asset Management Centre (PRAMC), a wing of the PWD, has asked the local civic body to fix the general defects in the roads which led to accidents.According to the BBMP, the black spots will be identified by the Traffic Police and graded in terms potential danger, based on the number of accidents that have happened within a few hundred metres.Somashekhara, Chief Engineer, Road Infra-structure, BBMP said, “We cannot generalize the potential danger of black spots just by the number of accidents. Sometimes, we cannot say that potholes are the reason for accidents and deaths. It is true that the engineering of the road is also responsible. Whenever the traffic police identifies these stretches and writes to us about them, we immediately take action and fix road construction defects. Negligent driving and over-speeding are also one of the main reasons for accidents and fatalities. We also have to access the report to find out the reason for fatalities and only then can we fix the issue.’’However, R Hitendra, the Additional Commissioner of traffic, believes that bad design and lack of road maintenance by BBMP are the major contributors to black spots. “The black spot is a recurrent problem. If we fix it in one particular stretch, something else appears in another stretch. There are many reasons for accidents and fatalities: blind curves, sloping roads, potholes, pedestrian movements and lack of street lighting. For this, the agency that maintains the roads has to have remedial measures. However, it’s also true that these incidents take place due to driver’s fault -- instances of drunk driving, defect in vehicles, illegally parked vehicles and human errors, ” he said.However, Hitendra also underlined the importance of road engineering in preventing accidents. “ Roads must be designed to restrict speed. When the roads allow motorists to drive at high speeds, accidents will increase. Better road engineering will prevent accidents and fatalities.’’Yelahanka traffic police officials have pointed out that the stretch of Jakkur flyover has been accident prone because of the fast-moving vehicles and the high number of heavy vehicles plying on it. They pointed out that two-wheeler riders often rammed into heavy vehicles stalled on the stretch or illegally parked vehicles. The police also added that the landing arm of the flyover was a risky zone as some motorists failed to reduce speed and maintain control of their vehicles. Police also pointed out that special teams are being deployed to keep a check on rash motorists.Traffic police also added that the high number of accidents along the Nayandahalli stretch were due to the ongoing metro work. They said that the road would be repaired only after completion of metro work. Badly positioned barricades without reflector strips were also causing accidents at night.Traffic Expert MN Sreehari, said, “ To fix this issue, agencies like BBMP and BDA should ensure that roads are constructed and maintained according to Road Engineering norms. The black spot issue is not the job of the police. This is the job of BBMP and BDA to consult experts and analyse the technical reasons for accidents at black spots. This is more a matter of road engineering.”The Bengaluru Traffic Police says that there are more than 5,000 deaths occur due to road accidents. That’s a sobering statistic.