A case for making killer roads safe

Nitin Jain

Two accidents a day: one precious life lost and one person injured. Thus reads the road mishap graph of Chandigarh drawn on the basis of official figures compiled by the UT Police. One would be naïve to gloss over the fact that several accidents and casualties go unreported due to certain reasons. In sum, it shows how unsafe the roads have become in Chandigarh, which prides itself on being the first planned city of India.

The crushing burden of the vehicular traffic on city roads-- Chandigarh boasts of the highest per capita vehicle population in the country---coupled with increasing traffic violations despite eagle-eyed traffic cops, and failure of the road infrastructure to cope with the changing needs majorly account for the increasing number of accidents.

Besides other things, the Chandigarh Police observe Road Safety Week every year to sensitise the residents, especially the motorists, about traffic rules. This year, the theme of this annual feature is “pedestrian safety”. This is not to take away from the effort but the moot question how such activities which more often than not turn out to be “publicity stunts”, make an impact on the ground and help minimise accidents, cries for an answer.

When it comes to improvement and expansion of the road infrastructure, the UT Police blame the UT Administration for not paying heed to the number of proposals it had made over the years. The much-needed flyovers, underpasses, separate lanes for different vehicles, special pathways for pedestrians and better regulation of the increasing traffic still remain a distant dream.

In the recent past, the UT Administration did initiate some projects to build more cycle tracks, cycle-friendly roundabouts and intelligent traffic lights management to segregate motorised and non-motorised vehicles on the city roads, but much more needs to be done to save precious lives from getting lost.