Eluru: State Housing, Information and Public Relations Minister Kolusu Parthasarathy has issued instructions to the officials to immediately analyse the causes of accidents on the national highway and prepare an action plan to control them.

At the District Road Safety Committee meeting held at the Collectorate here on Tuesday, the minister reviewed the prevention of accidents with the officials along with Eluru MP Putta Mahesh Kumar, MLAs Badeti Radhakrishnaiah, Chintamaneni Prabhakar, District Collector K Vetri Selvi and District SP K Pratap Shiva Kishore. Speaking on the occasion, Minister Parthasarathy said that many people are losing their lives in Eluru district, especially due to accidents on the national highway, which is very sad.

He said that everyone should come together to control accidents so that Eluru district can be made a road accident-free district. Accidents are occurring due to unauthorised dhabas, hotels, parking of heavy vehicles in unauthorised places, speeding of vehicles, etc., and the officials of the relevant departments should take coordinated steps to prevent accidents by controlling these. Highway patrols should be constantly vigilant, and steps should be taken to ensure that there is more lighting in places where accidents are likely to occur during the night. The Minister instructed the national highways officials to take steps to establish service roads in places where there are no service roads on the national highway from Kalaparru to Gundugolanu. He said that black spots where accidents occur most often on the national highway should be identified and steps should be taken to prevent accidents. He said that speeding is the cause of accidents, and speed guns should be installed to control speeding on the national highway and cases should be registered against motorists driving at excessive speed. He said that rules and regulations should be formulated for the establishment of dhabas and hotels on the highway. He instructed the officials to hold safety committee meetings at the district level as well as the constituency level, and to organise awareness programmes at the mandal level in every college on road safety, wearing helmets, and other safety issues.

Eluru MP Putta Mahesh Kumar said that several proposals have been taken to the attention of the central government in coordination with the district administration to prevent accidents on the national highway. He said that foot over bridges have been sanctioned for the use of school students at Kothagudem near Seethampet and Komirepalli near Gundugolanu. He said that awareness programmes should be organised to educate the public on road accident control.

Denduluru MLA Chintamaneni Prabhakar said that there are no service roads on the national highway from Kalaparru to Gundugolanu and he wanted to establish service roads. He said that the roads are bumpy and uneven in some places on the national highway and accidents are occurring due to uncontrolled speeding vehicles. He wanted to establish foot over bridges for the use of school students at Kothagudem near Seethampet and Komirepalli near Gundugolanu. He said that an approach road should be constructed for the service road leading to Nuzvid on the national highway, and that he had previously requested an RTC request stop there and wanted to establish a request stop. He said that cases should be registered against the convention centre near the national highway, which is dumping its waste on the highway. He said that many hotels have been established on the national highway without permission, and accidents are occurring due to vehicles being parked on the roadside due to lack of proper parking facilities, and he wanted to control these. He said that contractors are not properly managing the gardening on the dividers on the national highway, and if they were handed over to the nearby village panchayats, there would be a chance of maintaining the greenery and preventing accidents.

Eluru MLA Badeti Radhakrishnaiah (Chanti) said that due to the waste being dumped on the road from the Kalyana Mandapam and Convention Centre on the Eluru Mini Bypass. He wanted cases to be registered against those who dump waste on the roads.

District Collector Vetri Selvi said that the District Road Safety Committee meetings are held every month. In the meetings, measures to be taken to prevent accidents in the district are discussed, and joint inspections of roads, buildings, transport, and national highways authorities in accident-prone areas are conducted and steps are being taken to prevent accidents.

District SP Pratap Shiva Kishore said that 33 black spots where accidents occur most frequently have been identified in the district and solar blinkers have been installed there to warn of accidents. Awareness programmes are being conducted on wearing helmets and on the toll-free numbers 108 and 1033 to provide treatment to those injured in accidents.

District Revenue Officer V Visveswara Rao, Transport Department Deputy Commissioner Karim, National Highways Agency officials, officials and dignitaries from various departments in the district participated in the meeting.