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Dead end

Roads are the lifeline of hills, more so in a state having negligible presence of air and rail connectivity. However, the perils of travelling on the serpentine narrow roads in Himachal Pradesh, negotiating sharp curves and surmounting the extremely poor road condition in many places come to the fore each time there is a mishap.

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Pratibha Chauhan in Shimla

Roads are the lifeline of hills, more so in a state having negligible presence of air and rail connectivity. However, the perils of travelling on the serpentine narrow roads in Himachal Pradesh, negotiating sharp curves and surmounting the extremely poor road condition in many places come to the fore each time there is a mishap.

Even as road connectivity to every village remains a perpetual demand of people in the hill state, reducing the number of fatalities remains the biggest challenge for the state government. On an average, 3,000 accidents annually claim more than 1,000 lives on roads; the number of those injured and crippled in these being another story.

Despite government claims of employing every possible measure to put a brake on these fatal accidents, the data for the last one decade clearly indicates that killer stretches, especially in districts like Chamba, Sirmour and Shimla, continue to remain virtual death traps. The ghastly sight of shoes, bags and bottles of schoolchildren strewn at the site of a school bus accident near Nurpur in April earlier this year still sends shivers down one’s spine. The accident that claimed 27 lives, including 23 students, forced the government to formulate school transport safety guidelines, but its implementation is far from satisfactory.

The fact that the state has almost 15 lakh registered vehicles indicates at the vast transport network and the need for ensuring safety of commuters. Every day, office goers and school children, especially in rural areas, have to travel several kilometres to and from school; this necessitates the need for safe transport.

A survey by an NGO, Social Welfare Council of India, indicated that 80 per cent of the accidents involving heavy vehicles resulted from over-speeding and negligent driving. Bad road condition was the cause in almost 15 per cent accidents, while technical failure accounted for 5 per cent of the accidents. Despite 148 magisterial inquiries into major mishaps pointing at several shortcomings, there has been little or no follow-up action to bring down the accident rate.

The construction of two four-lanes — Parwanoo-Shimla and Ner Chowk-Manali — and the proposed 69 national highways (NH) are expected to reduce road accidents to a great extent. Whether the desired results would be achieved or not, only time will tell. However, the construction work on the two highways is causing constant traffic disruption and sliding hillsides and boulders are posing a major threat to commuters. With there is a raging debate about whether or not should the fragile hills be tampered with, the question is when will these hills stabilise, after all?

Human error, human tragedy

Notwithstanding the fatal accidents claiming precious lives, people travelling on roofs of buses, with passengers packed like sardines inside, is a common sight across the state. Human error (83 per cent) continues to remain the biggest cause of accidents with untrained drivers being behind the wheels, drunken driving, over-speeding or talking on the mobile phone while driving.

The government has made tall claims about setting up of professional driving schools, inspection of vehicles by flying squads for checking overloading, over-speeding and drunken driving, but the ground reality is far from this. The HRTC has a fleet of 3,200 buses, which includes 37- and 42-seater vehicles. For these many buses, there are very few flying squads and there is lack of coordination among the police and other agencies.

Waiting for disaster

Landslides are not a new phenomenon with certain in sites in Kinnuar, Shimla, Kullu, Mandi and Chamba districts prone to these. However, four-laning work is triggering slides in a big way, resulting in the disruption of traffic every now and then.

Despite landslide susceptibility maps and a block-wise landslide risk assessment being done in 2015 in all 77 blocks of the state, there have been no mitigating measures, barring an immediate response when a tragedy occurs. The fact that 67 hydro-power projects in the state have been categorised as facing risk, till date, no action plan has been prepared to avert a major disaster.

There is no mechanism to assess the risk and have an early-warning alert system to minimise the loss to life and property from landslides. However, the larger question is whether we are using the right method for road construction considering that at places the strata is very loose and the mountains are not stable.


MINISTERSPEAK

The rate of accidents in case of HRTC buses is less as compared to private bus operators. Yet, ensuring passenger safety in any vehicle is the responsibility of the state government. We have also urged the Union Ministry of Surface Transport to provide funds for including the cost of putting up crash barriers in the budget allocated for the road construction. This helps reduce mortality in accidents in hilly terrain. There will be stringent checking to ensure that only people with genuine driving licences are behind the wheels. — Govind Thakur, Transport Minister

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