Missing barriers: PWD identifies over 1,400 potential black spots in Himachal Pradesh

Bhanu P Lohumi

Shimla, September 29

Short and long term measures have been taken and about 80 per cent of the 147 hard black spots (leading to frequent accidents and deaths) listed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways have already been rectified. The Public Works Department has identified 1,445 potential black spots in Himachal.

As many as 66 out of 73 black spots pointed by the ministry have been rectified while 754 out of 1445 potential black spots internally identified by the teams of the Public Works Department have been taken care of, said Engineer-in-Chief, PWD, Ajay Gupta.

Short-term measures have been taken on all 68 spots marked by the ministry on roads maintained by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and permanent rectification has been undertaken on 32 spots while work is underway on the remaining stretches, said NHAI Regional Officer, Abdul Basit.

Rectification of black spots with engineering interventions/improvements, including installation of crash barriers, widening of narrow stretches, removal of debris, display of sign boards and installation of speed breaker, would be taken up on fast track to make driving safer in serpentine hilly roads in Himachal. One deadly and 480 vulnerable spots pointed out by police, Himachal Roads Transport Corporation (HRTC) and other departments would be rectified by year end, sources in the PWD maintained.

Kullu district with 30 black spots topped the list of 143 black spots in the state, witnessing recurrence of fatal accidents. These spots were identified by the police on the basis of repetitive and rolldown accidents taking place in all 12 districts. As many as 21 black spots were identified in Shimla district followed by Bilaspur and Mandi (12 each), Chamba, Kangra, Kinnaur, Sirmaur and Una (10 each), Hamirpur (9), Solan (5) and Lahaul and Spiti (4).

Out of the total 38,035 km of roads in the state, 28,908 km roads are metalled while 9,127 km road length is unmetalled. The annual growth in road length is about 10 per cent and installation of crash barriers on roads still remains a major challenge, given the tough topography of the state.

The hilly state with altitude ranging between 2000 feet and 16,000 feet, about 9269 km roads are in straight and flat area, 2795 km are curved, 966 km is curved and inclined, 370 km inclined, 152 km decline, 82 km length bridges and flyover and six km tunnels.

As many as 5,503 persons (more than three persons a day) were killed and 22,583 sustained injuries in 13,740 accidents in the state during the past five years from 2017-2022. As many as 3,020 rolldown accidents claimed 2633 lives while 6792 persons sustained injuries.

Black spots

• 147 hard black spots were pointed out by the MORTH
• 1445 potential black spots were identified by PWD
• 480 vulnerable spots were identified by Police, HRTC and other departments out of which 143 vulnerable (accident-prone stretches) identified by police witnessed recurrence of fatal accidents