Title - PUNJAB’S LAWLESS ROADS

The fatality figure in road accidents in Punjab is nearly six times higher than the deaths caused in homicide cases. According to a report circulated by the Government of India, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, another disturbing trend has come to light. Punjab leads a majority of the states in the severity of road accidents. For every 100 accidents there are 64.3 fatalities in Punjab, which are two to three times more than the figures of Kerala (11.3), Karnatka (20.7) and Maharashtra (17.3). Ludhiana enjoys the dubious distinction of leading other major cities of India where accident severity stands at 52.8, taking the totality of dead and injured persons into account.It is, therefore, high time a revolutionary change was effected into the entire gamut of safety management on roads – covering its three cliché-ridden components – engineering, education and enforcement. At the moment there is an underperformance under all the three heads.An average Punjabi, given to conspicuous consumption, goes in for fast-running vehicles. With speed being the essence of driving there is a temptation to drive with impunity. The faster the vehicle and the better the road, the more dangerous is the road accident with a corresponding reduction in safety and survival quotient

User-unfriendly roads

One can begin by looking at engineering, which is the principal culprit in endangering road safety. Our roads compared to what we have seen in the better developed countries are not user-friendly. With rampant encroachments, the inadequacy of berms and hard shoulders, with approach roads cutting into highways at right angles and no separation between coming and going traffic, it is a challenge to drive on roads. Hitting the nail on the head, American TV celebrity Oprah Winfrey compared the driving in India to a ‘video game’.

Six-laning or at least four-laning of all the important arteries should be accorded due priority. Unfortunately, the Ludhiana-Chandigarh segment is arguably one of the most neglected areas in spite of such intense traffic between these two important cities. The Ludhiana-Ferozepur, Ropar-Phagwara and Chandigarh-Patiala-Bathinda roads need to be six-laned in the first instance. There is no harm if more roads are built on the BOT (build, operate, transfer) basis as some of our better roads already are. It is often said that there are vertical solutions to horizontal problems. The need for building more flyovers and under-bridges cannot be over-emphasised.

Poor rail connectivity

Punjab has the misfortune of having a primitive inter-city and no intra-city rail connectivity. One reason for the burgeoning increase in vehicular traffic on Punjab roads is that there is no efficient railway system between the main cities. Lately, there has been a realisation that Metro railways on the pattern of Delhi need to be introduced in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, which should have inter-city connectivity. It is necessary to connect all the passenger ‘catchment’ areas of one city with the diverse destinations in the other cities covering contiguous areas as well. There is a crying need for fast railway shuttle services between Amritsar and Chandigarh touching Jalandhar and Ludhiana. One should be able to cater to the passenger need in such a manner that a person starting at 7 am from Amritsar should be able to reach Chandigarh by 10 am to be able to attend state government offices or the high court and return home by 10 pm the same day. This will take a lot of traffic off the Grand Trunk Road, which is getting clogged at various places.A look at random vegetation along the main roads reveals a retrograde mindset. Gone are the days when slow-moving carts were to traverse the road looking for a shady cover on the protracted journey. With fast-moving and air-conditioned vehicles now becoming more a rule than an exception a clearer line of a sight is more important than getting shady patches on the way.

Trees along roads

The Forest Department puts most vegetation on the verge of berms and whenever a road has to be widened, it entails extensive deforestation, which often invites criticism from environmentalists. Government agencies involved in planting trees along the roads should take steps to put the green cover at the far end of the government land. Putting shrubs and hedges close to a road impedes the line of sight and leads to a frequent loss of human and animal life, especially after dark.

Road discipline
Traffic Education, which is the second constituent of security, is confined mainly to cities. In the countryside and on highways there is no attempt at educating road-users. There is need to address the student and farming community at greater length. Awareness of road discipline is inadequately practised both by youth as well as farmers, although for different reasons. Youth may be aware but less willing to be cautious due to sheer adolescence. Studies reveal that 32.4% of fatalities on roads in India are in the age group of 15 and 24. The farming and rural community accounts for 60.6% fatalities in a spatial distribution of road accidents. There are about half a million tractors on road in Punjab. It is necessary that a comprehensive education programme addresses the farming community.The enforcement of the traffic rules is not the job of the police alone. Scrapping the road enforcement powers of the police a few years ago was like throwing the baby with the bathwater. Corruption on the road was quoted as the solitary reason for withdrawing the police from the highways. Instead of detecting and punishing the erring police officers it was found easier to leave the roads alone to the potential violators of traffic rules. But a realisation has now emerged that unless you trust and empower the police and equip it with the latest gadgetry and interception vehicles, nothing tangible can be achieved. The ubiquitous and stealthily deployed traffic cop is highly dreaded in the western countries because of his unsparing professional commitment. We can have similar cops here as well if they are truly motivated and protected.Undetected ‘hit-and-run’ cases are a major concern impacting safety on the roads. In the absence of traffic check-posts it is difficult to report an offending vehicle on the run. Often the road-user is not aware of the police station or the district of jurisdiction where the offence is taking place. It is very important that the telephone and mobile numbers of the SHOs and their superior officers are displayed on roads so that an offending vehicle is easily reported and intercepted.

Grant of licences

Obtaining a driving licence, especially of heavy vehicles, is perhaps the easiest thing in our country. A majority of the illiterate drivers do not have the volition to drive in the dedicated lane. They often block traffic on the fast lane, making it necessary for the faster traffic to overtake from the wrong side. Stricter qualifications of driving capability and road awareness needs to be prescribed for granting a licence to the drivers of heavy vehicles.Studies reveal that nearly 30% of accidents involve heavy vehicles on the roads. There is need to instill a fear of the law on the road, which at present seems to be supplanted by the ‘horsepower’ that a vehicle has behind its engine. Speed really thrills but kills. Some NGOs and private hospitals are doing a good job of emergency evacuation but it needs more uniform adoption all over the state.

Skewed excise logic
And now a word of caution against our skewed excise logic. Punjab roads are a tippler’s paradise. It is a joke in informed circles that it is easier to buy a bottle of liquor on the road than to get a tablet of aspirin. If you buy a bottle on the road, you are not expected to stay sober for very long. Even if it amounts to losing some excise revenue, liquor vends near the roads should be removed. The step may be in consonance with the Directive Principles of State Policy which are enshrined in the Constitution of India – the supreme law of the land.

Road Safety Board
The government can begin by taking the initiative of setting up a Road Safety Board on the pattern of what the Government of India is contemplating. It should not hold its deliberations in air-conditioned chambers only. Those involved should visit all traffic sectors in the state and carry out a holistic in-depth study of the shortcomings in road safety and study the causes of accidents in the accident-prone areas to do extensive accident mapping of the state.The board can consist of retired engineers, police officers and enlightened citizens who may give time-bound reports for the government to start acting without much delay. Some harsh decisions will have to be taken but they will be amply justified by a favourable social ‘cost-benefit’ analysis. There is need to save lives on the road: one does not know for whom the bell may toll next.