Potholes have killed more Indians in the past five years than terrorist attacks, the Supreme Court has said.

Around 10 people a day die because of fatal accidents on the country's woeful road network.

The Supreme Court in Delhi on Thursday expressed its concern over the figures, terming the 15,000 deaths in five years “unacceptable”.

Justice Madan B Lokur said that the 5,000 deaths annually caused by potholes across the country was “probably more than those killed on the border or by the terrorists”.

According to the latest data, 14,926 people were killed in road accidents caused by potholes between 2013 and 2017. By comparison, 803 died in terrorist attacks, including attacks by Naxalites and Maoist rebels in eastern India, in 2017.

Justices Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta (no relation) said the number of pothole-related fatalities since 2013 indicated that authorities were not maintaining roads as well as they should be.

In a statement, the Court said: “This is absolutely a very high number and indicates that concerned authorities, whether they are municipal corporations, state governments, the National Highways Authority of India and others, are not maintaining the roads.”

The Court also said that no compensation was paid to victims’ families in these cases and relatives of the dead had little recourse but to “live with the unforeseen tragedy due to lack of concern shown by the authorities”.