Tambaram-Trichy highway to do away with blackspots, get safer

Tambaram-Trichy highway to do away with blackspots, get safer

NHAI Sanctions 105 Crore To Cut Down On Accidents, Improve Infra Along Stretch

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

17.07.2021 

In a bid to cut down on accidents along the Tambaram-Trichy highway (NH-45), the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has sanctioned `105 crore for constructing bridges, vehicle underpasses, additional lighting facilities and improving road alignment.

The fund allocation comes almost eight years after NHAI identified risky stretches on the NH-45. The highway is one among the top ten most perilous road stretches in the country with 27 accident ‘blackspots’ — a 500m stretch where at least five fatal accidents were reported in a year. At least 40 people died in road accidents at some of these 27 blackspots on NH-45.

NHAI was under fire for failing to take adequate measures to reduce accidents at these places identified in 2012. Tenders were floated but work got delayed due to legal issues and land acquisition hassles.

It was only last year that work started at half-adozen blackspots on the Tambaram-Tindivanam stretch at a project cost of `9 crore. This includes road junctions at Singaperumal Koil, Kattankulathur, Marimalaimagar, Paranur railway bridge and Acharapakkam.

NHAI, which cleared obstacles that caused accidents, put in place metal-beam crash barriers, rumble strips, additional speed breakers, road studs, traffic signals and retro-reflective traffic sign boards.

Construction of pedestrian bridges and installation of pedestrian guard rails were pending at a few locations, an NHAI official from Chennai Regional Office said.

“Blackspot rectification work was delayed due to the lockdown but it has reached the final stage now. We expect to finish it by July-end,” the official added.

However, motorists, who use the Tambaram-Trichy stretch regularly, said their complaints pertaining to street lights have gone unattended.

During the entire lockdown period, road lights near Singaperumal Koil junction were dysfunctional, said G Ganesh from Tamil Nadu Lorry Owners Association. “Several motorists get blinded by the high beam without street lights,” he said.

NHAI had outsourced maintenance work of street lights on the stretch to a private contractor, but were unable to find electricians during the lockdown, Ganesh added.

Tenders have also been floated this month to rectify accident blackspots at Mamandur, Arasur and Ellis Chatram along Tindivanam-Ulundurpet stretch.

NHAI has set a one-year deadline to complete these infra projects.

On the progress of the project, public transport activist R Rengachari said, “The government should also speed up enforcement measures. The Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system proposed for NH-45 has been pending for years now”.

ANPR project aims at installing 56 speed sensors and 168 cameras between Chennai and Trichy to automatically detect vehicles travelling above 100 km per hour and penalise them.