Chandigarh: Punjab Transport Minister S. Laljit Singh Bhullar, on Wednesday, directed all the road owning departments and agencies to complete the rectification work of all accidental black spots on state and national highways in the state at the earliest to reduce the mortality rate in road accidents. While reviewing the rectification work on black spots identified under phase-1 in the state at his official residence here, the minister informed that around 62 per cent of rectification work on black spots has been done so far.
Expressing deep concern on remaining 149 accidental black spots out of total 391 under phase-1, he asked the Secretary Transport Mr. Vikas Garg to write letters to road owning departments and agencies for early completion of the work. The Minister informed that under Phase-1, a total 391 black were identified in 14 police districts of Punjab, of which rectification of 218 black spots out of total 267, has completed by NHAI with the cost of around Rs.600 crore so far, while progress for rectifying remaining 49 black spots was underway.
Similarly, PWD (B&R) has rectified 18 accidental black spots out of total 84 black spots, while Local Government and other departments have rectified 20 black spots out of total 54 sites. During the meeting, S. Laljit Singh Bhullar released the book ‘Accident Black Spot Identification and Rectification Program’ on various Highways/Roads of Punjab-2021 by PUNBUS under phase-2, in which total 407 accidental black spots identified in 16 Police Districts of Punjab along with their respective administrative districts has been published for remedial actions.
S. Bhullar further informed that NHAI has accepted 291 accidental black spots under phase-2, sent to them after identification by the state of Punjab, which would further pave the way for early rectification of these sites to reduce the mortality rate in road accidents in the state. He informed that a complete list of black spots i.e. 292 in number falling on National Highways in Punjab was submitted to Traffic Research Wing, Ministry of Transport and National Highways (MoRTH).
Punjab Chief Minister S. Bhagwat Singh Mann took up the issue with Union Transport Minister Sh. Nitin Gadkari through a letter dated 22.04.2022. Besides this, Punjab Transport Secretary Mr. Vikas Garg and Director General, Lead Agency, Road Safety Mr. R. Venkat Ratnam have met both the Secretary MoRTH and chairperson NHAI at New Delhi to expedite the work relating to rectification of black spots in the State of Punjab, after which MoRTH vide letter dated 23.05.2022 directed the officials of NHAI to confirm the list of black spots submitted by Punjab government and take necessary action for rectification these black spots.
He said that apart from state share, the rectification work under phase-2 on National Highways would be completed with around Rs.700 crore by NHAI. The Minister said that 407 more black spots have been identified under phase-2 as per the report submitted by SAFE Society. Of which, 292 black spots were identified on National Highways, 96 black spots are on State Highways/ODR/MDR, 9 black spot are on Village Roads and 10 black spots are on Municipal roads.
The Minister categorically mentioned that road accident black spot on National Highways, a road stretch of about 500m in length in which either 5 road accidents (involving fatalities/grievous injuries) took place during the last three calendar years or 10 fatalities took place during the last three calendar years as per the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH). He said that Punjab adopted this definition of accidental black spot on National Highways, for the entire state covering all Highways and undertaken this task of identification and rectification of accidental black spots in Punjab and entrusted this joint task to Punjab Police, Transport Department and Safe Punjab Programme.
Appreciating the work of NHAI and other road owning departments such as PWD (B&R), Local Govt and Punjab Mandi Board, Transport Minister urged them to rectify all the black spots identifies in phase-2 program because of the fact that more than 65 per cent of road accidents and fatalities occurs on National and State Highways in the State.
