12% fall in pedestrian deaths after revamp of intersections in Gurugram

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, March 14

The city has registered a decline of 12.7 per cent in pedestrian fatalities after the project to redesign accident hotspots and erect pedestrian islands was launched here.

Admn redesigning blackspots

• Pedestrian islands are generally constructed at locations where high speed and volume of traffic are witnessed or a person has to cross three or more lanes of a road
• The authorities have so far revamped 25 such intersections in the city. This year, around 15 such crossings will be constructed
• The major intersections that were revamped include IFFCO Chowk, Khushboo Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, IMT Manesar intersection, Hailey Mandi flyover and Valley View cut
• The administration is redesigning blackspots such as Rajiv Chowk, Kherki Daula cut and Narsinghpur cut as each of these account for over 5% of fatalities in the city

The project is part of the Gurugram Vision Zero initiative that aims to eliminate accidents in the city.

The number of pedestrian deaths has declined from 157 in 2019 to 137 in 2022. Pedestrian islands are generally constructed at locations where high speed and volume of traffic are witnessed or a person has to cross three or more lanes of a road.

The authorities have so far redesigned 25 such intersections in the city. This year, around 15 such crossings will be constructed. The major intersections that were revamped include IFFCO Chowk, Khushboo Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, IMT Manesar intersection, Hailey Mandi flyover intersection and Valley View cut.

The authorities are hoping that mishaps at IFFCO Chowk will reduce substantially after the recent revamp. In the last three years, the intersection has witnessed in which 13 persons were killed, 14 suffered major injuries and numerous unreported minor injuries — the highest number of deaths and accidents at any single spot in the city.

Prior to the redesign, IFFCO Chowk was a signal-free intersection with virtually no facility for the safe movement of pedestrians. The only way for them to cross the road were two foot-overbridges and a dingy pedestrian underpass with no ventilation.

Now, two portable traffic lights have been were installed on either side of the road median to ensure that pedestrians can cross the intersection without any interaction with vehicles. A zebra crossing displaying the dedicated crossing zone has also been painted. Barriers on the median were torn down between the zebra crossings on either side for the ease of pedestrian movement. Besides, no-stop signs were installed at points where buses and autorickshaws used to stop.