Highways turn death traps

Mahabubnagar: The two national highways passing through Mahabubnagar are turning death traps for road users, with the number of fatal accidents increasing like never before in the district.

The Hyderabad-Bangalore National Highway and Hyderabad-Bijapur National Highway witness at least one accident every day even after they have been made four-lanes in the recent years.

The irony is that the roads which were just two-lane were widened to four-lane to avoid accidents, traffic snarls and facilitate speedy travel but due to inadequate planning of the road constructing companies, the accidents have been increasing in an alarming rate.

In fact, the construction companies did not take into account the growing traffic flow from adjoining villages and towns on the national highways.

Particularly, the four-lane highway NH 44, passing through Mahabubnagar, has become a way leading to hell for the people in district. The highway stretches almost 165 kilometers across the district. Entering at Palmakula village in Kottur mandal near Rangareddy district boarder, the highway runs all along the district, passing through smaller and bigger towns in the district. Apart from this, the highway also crosses through hundreds of smaller villages and hamlets all along its way.

In spite of growing numbers of accidents on this highway, no public representative had taken cognizance of the issue and everyone is taking it as a routine case of road accidents due to negligence of either the vehicle driver or the persons crossing the road. But a recent incident of a women getting killed in a road accident at Janampet village of Addakal mandal had created a flutter amongst the villagers and the police.

Recently, a woman named Jamullamma of Janampet village was killed in a road accident and the villagers protested against the police for not regulating the speeding vehicles. A warlike situation arose and the police and the people in the village clashed each other.

So far, out of the total 140 population of Janampet village of Addakal mandal, 35 people have been killed in road accidents during the past seven years. In addition to this, another 35 people are suffering from various disabilities caused by the accidents.

Similarly, at Kottur bypass junction, 195 accidents have occurred since 2009. In all, 133 members have been killed and 183 people became handicapped due to road accidents in the district. “Despite our repeated pleas, our conditions have not improved. Every day all smaller junctions are witnessing at least one accident.

In fact, the company which had constructed the NH44 should have designed the highway keeping in view the population growth for the next 100 years, but it has just ignored these smaller hamlets,” said a local leader.

In this regard, Mahabubnagar MP Jitender Reddy raised the issue with the Centre and asked the government to pressurise the construction company to immediately construct bypass roads or underway roads to avoid accidents.