National Highway Authority of India takes care of the National Highway – 1 A that links Kathua with Srinagar. It is the main highway that connects two regions of the State. Being the only connecting highway, it is strategically very crucial link. With movement of goods and human beings fast increasing, this highway is one of the busiest highways in the country. It runs through mountains and as such, it needs extraordinary careful driving and precautionary measures to avoid accidents. Moreover, most of these mountains are not steadfast as these are made of sand and earthwith thin forest cover. During the rainy season, these mountains yield to landslides that cause obstruction to the heavy traffic.
NH-1A has proved to be the deadliest of roads in Northern India. Innumerable road accidents happen leading to loss of lives and property. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has collected the data detailing the accidents happening between 2012 and2016 resulting in fatalities. According to available information with the traffic police, we learn that black spots are among the main causes of road accidents on this highway. Officials of the NHAI have identified these black spots on the highway and they have been directed to take immediate steps to repair these spots and reduce happening of accidents. Actually the NHAI has distributed the entire 1A Highway into two zones. Zone one is from Kathua to Udhampur and zones two is from Udhampur to Srinagar. As far as zone one is concerned, four laning of the highway has been completed and in the course of that exercise all the black spots have been covered and converted into safety zones.
The real problem is about the black spots all the way from Udhampur to Srinagar/Baramulla. This stretch has been surveyed for four-laning under the approved project and when that is done; the black spots would also go. The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has reports that such spots on the NH-1A are Digdol and Battery Chashma in Ramban district, K-Root to Lethpora in Awantipora and some spots beyond Awantipora up to Srinagar. Most of the road accidents resulting in fatalities happen around these black spots. According to the official data, Digdol area witnessed 25 fatalities in 2011, 15 in 2012 and 19 in 2014. Similarly, Battery Chashma witnessed 15 fatalities in 2014 alone. The black spot of K-Root to Lethpora in Awantipora witnessed 14 fatalities in 2011, 15 in 2012 and 18 in 2013 while as the black spots beyond Awantipora witnessed 43 fatalities in 2011, 19 in 2012 and 23 in 2013. These are no small numbers and the Union Ministry is very unhappy with it. Therefore, focusing on the objective of reducing the number of fatalities owing to road accidents, the Ministry has asked the NHAI to ensure that temporary rectification works are initiated as early as possible on the ground that leaving such spots un-attended till completion of four-laning work would not be advisable.
NHAI has the mechanism of periodically auditing National Highway in order to ensure that smooth plying of traffic on the highway is ensured. The auditors check the road and if they find black spots these are repaired. Actually NHAI has engaged Thapar Institute Patiala for auditing of Jammu-Udhampur stretch after every three months.The auditing agency has been selected for the task and on the basis of Auditor’s report corrective measures are being taken by the NHAI. However, Auditors for Udhampur-Ramban and Ramban-Banihal and Srinagar stretch are yet to be engaged for conducting road safety audits. However, the Project Director states that the contractors are required to submit a panel of Auditors to NHAI for selection and exercise in this regard is going on and hopefully within next one or two month the Auditors would be engaged for conducting the safety audits.
We laud the decision of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of instructing the NHAI of taking up with immediate effect the temporary repairing of all black spots to reduce chances of road accidents. The work of repairing should be taken up immediately. There are other instructions also aimed at reducing occurrence of road accidents. We would impress upon the Road Transport Department to implement all the recommendations of road safety in order to make foolproof arrangement of securing the crucial National Highway 1-A against road accidents and fatalities. In a recent editorial, we had said that most of the road accidents happen owing to the negligence of the drivers or defective machinery. Now it has been found that black spots are no less dangerous. Therefore, let this repairing work commence as soon as possible and reduce the chances of road accidents.
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