Myriad challenges are lying in the New Year- 2018 before the State police and the most important of them being the spiralling number of road accidents, taking toll of human lives and road congestion being reported at major cities across the State.
Spiralling road mishaps in Uttarakhand having left the common people scared. Statistics reveal that there has been a significant rise in the accidents caused several reasons including over-speeding vehicles, rash driving, drunken driving, poor road conditions, teenage drivers and other factors.
Among various reasons behind fatal accidents recurring, dug- up roads and over- speeding are prominent factors.
The comparative data of the accidents compiled over the past three years from January 1 to November 30 revealed that 1451 cases of road accidents were reported in 2017 while the figures were 1450 in 2016 and 1379 in 2015. Statistics further revealed that as many as 856 persons died in the 11 months during 2017 while the casualty figures were 888 in 2016 and 833 in 2015. Moreover, 1504 persons were injured in the same period of time in 2017, 1600 in 2016 and 1541 in 2014.
Statistics further revealed that the four districts- Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital and Dehradun -are bearing the maximum brunt of the road accidents.
A total of 313 accidents were reported from January 1 to November 30, 2017 in Dehradun while the figures are 262 in 2016 and 309 in 2015. In Haridwar, 301 accidents were reported in the same period in 2017 while the figures are 320 in 2016 and 298 in 2015. The figure stands at 324 for the same period in 2017 in Udham Singh Nagar with number of accidents being 351 in 2016 and 313 in 2015.
Moreover, it has been observed that traffic congestion is being experienced on various roads of cities across the state due to road encroachment, footpath encroachment, improperly placed electricity poles along the roadside and other factors.
Roads of various cities have not been widened but there has been rapid increase in number of four wheelers and two wheelers in the State.
State Government has recently set up traffic directorate in view of various cities including provisional state capital, Haldwani, Nainital, Haridwar and Rudrapur facing problems of traffic jams on almost daily basis.
AIG Kewal Khurana was made in-charge of Traffic Directorate. Khurana said that several issues are being looked into to resolve road congestion. “We have decided to take several measures including generating space and preventing encroachments to improve traffic situation in the State capital and other parts of the State,” he added.
He said that district police heads have been directed to draft a plan to find out permanent solutions for resolving traffic jams in their respective districts.
Police officers were also issued instructions to identify accident prone areas and take necessary steps there, he added.
Observers opined that things are really grim and the State police must sweat hard to resolve road congestion and end the menace of drunk driving and rash driving that are contributing considerably to the surge in the number of accidents. It must be written here that road insecurity creates many problems.