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Responding to questions in Lok Sabha, Highways and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari provided information on expressways built, managed and controlled by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as well as addressing concerns on accidents and security measures.
The NHAI is actively involved in the construction and management of 27 Greenfield expressways and controlled access corridors, spanning a length of approximately 9,860 km. Of these, about 7,213 km have already been awarded and nearly 3,192 km of highways have been completed by July 2023.
Contrary to claims of a steady increase in accidents, data for the years 2017 to 2021 indicate that the number of traffic accidents on these motorways has not shown an upward trend. The Ministry highlighted the figures related to road accidents, deaths and injuries on National Highways, including express roads, for the indicated calendar years.
No. of Accident, Fatalities and Person Injured on NH
| Year | No. of Accidents | No. of Fatalities | No. of Persons Injured |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 141,466 | 53,181 | 142,622 |
| 2018 | 140,843 | 54,046 | 140,622 |
| 2019 | 137,191 | 53,872 | 137,549 |
| 2020 | 116,496 | 47,984 | 109,898 |
| 2021 | 128,825 | 56,007 | 117,765 |
The Ministry clarified that fatal road accidents on National Highways, including express roads, are not concerning.
ATMS has been implemented in high-traffic corridors. They include CCTV/PTZ cameras, message signs, speed display systems, traffic classifiers, counters, and incident detection systems. They help quickly identify incidents and improve road control and response times.
While NHAI is involved in establishing ATMs for traffic management, the responsibility for traffic enforcement and violation management lies primarily with state police departments. It should be noted that NHAI does not operate separate interceptors to monitor speeding vehicles; instead, this duty is typically carried out by the State Police.
However, NHAI supports law enforcement efforts by installing speed cameras/radars along with ANPR cameras on selected high-density national highways and highways such as Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Trans Haryana and Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE).
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