The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has begun identifying the reasons for road accidents on the Nagpur-Shirdi stretch of the Samruddhi mahamarg Sanjay Yadav, joint managing director, MSRDC, said, “Prima facie, it appears that the majority of the accidents on the Nagpur-Shirdi stretch of the Samruddhi expressway have taken place due to overspeeding and stray dogs and other wild animals that suddenly come onto the highway. I have personally travelled on the highway, and I can say that there is no problem concerning the expressway alignment, as is the proper gradient. We have also installed speed limit restrictions, and the highway police are also patrolling the road and taking all the best measures to prevent accidents. We would appeal to the motorists using this highway to follow lane discipline and drive responsibly.”
Yadav also told media persons that compound walls constructed by the MSRDC have been removed by farmers because of which stray dogs and wild animals are coming on the highway. “We had constructed compound walls near farms adjacent to the expressway but some farmers removed them for their convenience,” said Yadav. Every six hours, the MSRDC also gets an incident management report and the officials also scrutinize each and every call they receive. From December 11, the day the expressway was inaugurated, till December 27, 1.50 lakh vehicles have used the expressway and over R8 crore was collected via toll.
More than 29 vehicular accidents have taken place on the Nagpur-Shirdi stretch of the expressway in which one person died and 33 were injured. On Tuesday, a car turned turtle following a tyre burst near Aurangabad. Kulwant K Sarangal, ADGP, traffic, Maharashtra, said, “I have already informed the officials concerned in our department to analyse each and every accident that has taken place on the Nagpur-Shirdi stretch of Samruddhi expressway so that we can get more information on the reasons behind them. In a month, we will have a database which we will analyse, and corrective measures will be taken to prevent accidents.”
The highway safety police (HSP) have set up 15 traffic aid posts (TAPs) along the expressway. Incident management has been thought through, and MSRDC has deployed over 150 security personnel drawn from the pool of ex-servicemen to man the TAPs set up by the HSP. Also, 21 ambulances, 21 quick response vehicles, 15 cranes of 30 MT each, and 15 patrolling vehicles are being deployed.
