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Tuesday , 26 March 2024

Maintaining & Managing Indian Highways

Law Enforcement and Education

The highways lack law enforcement as related traffic is very much apparent when it passes through villages / towns. In addition, the lack of education of people living near the highways is another factor leading to fatalities during both, day and night time. Both law enforcement and education of people living near the highways are necessary to maximise the utility of the highway (traffic flow) with safety (reducing accidents and saving lives) for all users. The Government has to recognise that law enforcement, educating people living near the highways and the road users go hand in hand. Specific programmes need to be developed for long term safe-guarding of the highway investments.

Law Enforcement: Most of the highways pass through areas with no land use or sparse land use. But when the highways pass through villages or towns, it is essential that some type of law enforcement is carried out to maintain the efficiency of the highway, particularly during the identified local peak hours. The items related to the lack of enforcement along the highway corridor relate to illegal parking of vehicles at exit and entry points of the service roads along the highway and use of bus stops for other purposes (drying grains, sleeping or other activities). Also, in many places, vehicles are parked illegally and pedestrians encroach upon shoulders ? particularly near villages / towns that abut the highway. Adequate number of police personnel should be present to check on illegal activities, proper signs must be installed and people must be educated to change their attitude. It is essential to strictly enforce ?no parking? zones near exit and entry points of service roads, on shoulders and also near bus stops.

Education: All efforts should be made to educate the locals about road laws, the use of highways and also to improve safety along the corridor. The local schools and organisations (town halls / local leaders) should be approached to distribute pamphlets about road use. Also illegal driving in opposite direction needs to be stopped with proper education about rules and the risks of such driving. ?No parking? signs and enforcement personnel are non-existent in most places. Most of the problems mentioned relate to lack of enforcement by local traffic police.

Animals crossing the highway corridor and causing accidents or getting killed or injured is another situation that needs to be tackled; there are specific measures that can be implemented to reduce such accidents. It has been observed from recent accident data collected for the newly constructed highway section between Bhandara and Chhattisgarh that during the initial time of the highway being opened, the fatality rates are much high; but as the highway matures and the locals get educated and used to using the highway, the fatality rate drops dramatically. This indicates that it is important to have a combination of law enforcement and education to avoid accidents and increase safety when the highway passes through villages / towns.

 

Steps to be taken

NHAI should develop long term maintenance, law enforcement and educational programmes for the highways and safeguard the investment. The implementation of law enforcement and education will assist in improving the traffic flow, safety (save lives) and the overall roadway system ? for both motorised and non-motorised users, reducing loss of property and in giving comfort to commuters. These few points can sum up some of the steps to be taken:

? The IRC Codes must be updated on a regular basis with input from practitioners, intellectuals and research institutions.

? Consolidating the IRC Codes into one ?single manual? would increase their use and make it easy to update them.

? Law enforcement is a must to maintain the free flow of traffic along the highways and to ensure safety of all users — motorised as well as non-motorised.

? Educating the locals and road users about the use of highways should be a part of the highway maintenance programme by NHAI. It can assist in reducing accidents and unsafe driving habits.

? A part of the highway funds should be allocated for law enforcement and education to maintain the highways for long term benefits.

? Installing ?No parking? signs is a must at specific locations for road safety and access to locals, particularly near service roads, entrances and exits.

? Local schools and organisations should be approached and pamphlets related to safe use of highway must be distributed.

? Maintenance of signs, road markings, cat eyes and other essential elements of highway are required throughout the year.

 

(Acknowledgements: Artefacts Projects Limited, Nagpur provided pictures and data for this article).

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