Soon, buck will stop with construction agencies
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh has initiated the process for making rules to hold road construction agencies responsible for traffic crashes if they happen due any faulty road designs, as well as to control the access of non-motorised transport, including pedestrians.
The public works department (PWD) was on Wednesday asked to make draft rules in this regard based on the experts’ suggestions received in the seminar organised by the transport department in collaboration with SaveLife Foundation here on the day. The workshop was organised to discuss two crucial road safety provisions under the Motor Vehicle (Amended) Act, 2019, providing the rulemaking power to the state government and looking into standards for road design, construction and maintenance, regulation and controlling access of non-motorised transport with a view to improving road safety and reducing road crash deaths.
“PWD will submit the draft to the transport department, the nodal body for road safety in UP in the next 10 days. Once we receive the draft, we will start work on making rules to make roads safer by improving faulty road designs etc,” transport commissioner Dheeraj Sahu said.
Among the experts participating in the workshop were Aditya Medury, professor of civil engineering at IIT-Kanpur, R Srinivasa Kumar, associate professor at Osmania University, Indraji Ghosh, associate professor of civil engineering at IIT-Roorkee, Pramesh Chakraborty, assistant professor (civil) at IIT-Kanpur, Deepanshu Gupta, vice-president of Indian Road Safety Campaign and Piyush Tewari, founder and chief executive officer, SaveLife Foundation. Additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi was also among many officials from government departments and road construction agencies participating in the workshop. According to Sahu, UP is the first state in the country to start making rules to penalise road construction agencies for road accidents. “The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act under Section 198A holds road contractors and concessionaires accountable for faulty road design and non-maintenance of roads leading to deaths and disability. Section 210 D gives the power to the state government to make rules for design, construction, and maintenance standards for roads under its jurisdiction,” Sahu said
Infrastructural flaws such as potholes, on-going road works/ under construction sites, according to him, contributed to 2,892 deaths in UP in 2019.
“The creation of state-level rules under Section 210D will ensure an accountability framework, besides improving the quality of the roads,” he said. Section 138 (1A) of MVAA ’19 gives the power to state governments to regulate activities of pedestrians and non-motorised road users in a public place, he added. “In 2019, 4,676 pedestrians and NMT users lost their lives due to road crashes in UP. Regulation of activities in a public place of pedestrians and non-motorised road users could include the creation of special zones such as cycle tracks and footpaths, NMT lanes,” he said.
Piyush Tewari, CEO, SaveLIFE Foundation, said, “We deeply appreciate the commitment of the government of Uttar Pradesh to make the state’s roads safer.”
PWD will submit the draft to the transport department, the nodal body for road safety in UP in the next 10 days DHEERAJ SAHU , transport commissioner