Safety auditors for BMC roads

To eliminate road design flaws that cause accidents: 39 chronic spots identified

In a bid to curb accidents and enhance road safety in the city, the BMC is set to appoint road safety auditors to rectify design flaws that lead to accidents on major roads.

There are as many as 39 ‘black spots’ or accident-prone spots identified by the BMC, that see a high number of accidents due to poor road design.

The civic body will be seeking help from the road safety auditors to eliminate the design flaws that have been found to cause accidents, and execute alterations in the road designs through global consultants.

Once appointed, they will survey the spots, prepare detailed reports on the cause of accidents and provide design solutions.Of the 39 black spots in the city, 17 have been identified on BMC roads. The civic body has already initiated the process of inviting Request for Proposals (RFPs) for the appointment of the road safety auditors. According to data available with the BMC, between October 2015 and September 2018, the Mumbai traffic police identified a total of 58 ‘black spots’ on the city’s roads, where 890 accidents occurred. These resulted in 188 deaths and left 898 people injured.

Meanwhile, the BMC has identified at least 39 ‘black spots’ in the city, including 17 on major roads constructed and maintained by the BMC itself. Some of these ‘black spots’ include SV Road in Khar-Bandra, Alfred Talkies junction at Grant Road, Napean Sea Road, Charni Road junction and Vikhroli.

A senior official from the BMC’s roads and bridges department said that possible solutions would include changing the curvature of the roads, providing traffic signals wherever necessary, placing speed breakers, removing bottlenecks, and installing rumble strips, reflectors and safety barriers, etc.

The official added, "We have already begun improvement work on junctions with traffic congestions. We are also channelling solutions for safe pedestrian crossing."

As per a Supreme Court-appointed committee’s guidelines, a "black-spot” is a road corridor or stretch, about 500 m long, in which either five to 10 road accidents, involving fatalities and grievous injuries, have been reported during the consecutive three calendar years.

These black spots identified must have proper signage indicating that this is an accident-prone spot, and a medical van should be parked close by.