Strict Compliance of Road Safety: Need of the Hour
We are working effectively to ensure compliance of the court orders and of the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002 by encouraging the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways for issuing proactive directions to the offices of the Highway Administration and NHAI for strict compliance of the road safety guidelines.
The Bleak Reality
As per a reply by the Highway Administration to an RTI application, only 37 businesses on the 438 Km stretch of NH-44 (Old NH-1 and NH-1A) in the states of Haryana and Punjab have taken the mandatory access permissions.
Thousands of businesses (housing complexes, colleges, marriage palaces, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, bars, liquor vends, petrol pumps, factories and vehicle dealerships etc.) are working without this mandatory permission/renewal along National Highways in India.
The offices of Project Directors and Project Implementing Units of NHAI are responsible to check the violations and act against the violators. However, the violations continue to be unabated.
This sort of negligence poses a lot of risks and threats, such as:
- Illegal access/cuts cause a high risk to the commuters as the basic safety parameters are ignored.
- Fee worth crores of rupees is not paid to the Government by these businesses, while the commuters paya hefty toll tax.
- Infrastructure like drains etc. are broken or filled up to make illegal accesses.
- New highways and bypasses are being built. Such illegal businesses would come up along the newly laid highways; thereby turning them into death traps.