TAJ EXPRESSWAY’S HUMAN TOLL ZOOMS TO 30 DEATHS PER WEEK

NOIDA: Thirty people died in road accidents on the Yamuna Expressway every week in 2015 compared to 15 the year before.

The Uttar Pradesh traffic police have for the first time come out with consolidated figures of accident fatalities on the expressway that connects Greater Noida to Agra and is extensively used by residents of the Capital.

Last year, 1,585 people died in motor accidents on the e-way against 801 in 2014 — a 98% jump. The 165-km stretch accounted for 9% of all road accident deaths (17,666) that year in UP, which has a 25,000-km-long network of state and national highways alone.

Speeding is the lone reason for the drastic rise in fatalities, UP’s additional director general (traffic) Anil Kumar Agrawal said Tuesday.

The speed limit on the stretch is 60kmph for trucks and 100kmph for cars and other four-wheelers.

The e-way passes through the UP districts of Gautam Budh Nagar, Aligarh, Mathura, Hathras and Agra. With Aligarh reporting a 365% jump in fatalities, Agrawal said its senior superintendent of police has been asked to look into the reasons for it.

SPEEDING IS THE LONE REASON FOR THE DRASTIC RISE IN FATALITIES, OFFICIALS SAID

Frequent accidents on the e-way that became operational in August 2012 had prompted the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) in December 2014 to seek a safety audit. The Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) was roped in for the job and it came up with suggestions for improvement — levelling of bumps above underpasses, new air filling stations, new speed breakers and crash barriers on dividers, high-tech cameras.

A spokesman for Jaypee Infratech, which operates the e-way, said the CRRI study suggested speeding and sleeping on the wheel as the two main reasons for accidents. It claimed it had complied 100% with the recommendations .“Three nitrogen filling stations to check tyre bursts have been set up. Besides, rumble strips on 30 points have been installed on the advice of the police of the districts concerned to shake up drowsy drivers. Bumpy stretches have been levelled,” the spokesman said.