Authorities accused of not taking precautionary measures to curb accidents
The National Highway authorities and the local units of road transport and traffic police have come under fire, after three people, including a child, died in an accident when a school bus carrying the YSRC activists hit a car and three motorcycles at Morampudi junction on the NH5 on the outskirts of Rajahmundry.
Morampudi junction is privy to many ghastly accidents in the past. A similar trend is seen at two more junctions between Kakinada and Rajahmundry. According to the records available with the traffic police, 26 major accidents occurred at Morampudi junction, killing 8 people in 2012. Sources hint at another 10 unregistered deaths too. In 2013, 11 persons lost their lives in 39 road mishaps there. Last year, the number of deaths, however, came down to nine in 24 accidents (data till October).
In various instances, motorists blame it on the faulty design of the road here. “Morampudi is considered a dangerous stretch as the construction of the Highway is faulty. The road from Bommuru (Vijayawada side) near Horlicks factory is laid at a higher level and then it plunges to a very low point till Morampudi Junction; visa vis at the other side from Lalacheruvu (Visakhapatnam side). Heavy vehicles coming at a high speed can’t see other vehicles and the there are no barricades too,” says Goli Ramarao, a medical practitioner.
A car dealer and industrialist Kantipudi Sarvarayudu, had installed CCTV cameras at the junction by spending from his own pocket, besides spending Rs.5 lakh more to donate steel barricades to traffic police. “One of the CCTV cameras installed at the junction captured the sequence of the accident. Traffic police are not using the barricades which I gave them three years ago. The RTA, traffic police and National Highways authorities must own responsibility for the accident as they have failed in taking precautionary measures at this junction,” said Mr. Sarvarayudu.
Meanwhile, Gorantla Butchaih Chowdary, who rushed to the spot, said that he would convene a meeting with the National Highway authorities, R&B officials and the Commissioner of Rajahmundry Municipal Corporation to find out a permanent solution to the problem. He favours construction of four flyovers and four more under-bridges to address the traffic bottlenecks on this stretch.
For no fault of theirs, owners of new vehicles, especially heavy vehicles such as lorries, are forced to pay heavy penalty at various traffic junctions for not having their Registration Certificates or Driving Licence (DL) in form of smart cards.For the last four to five months, the vehicle owners have been bearing the brunt of the dearth of office stationery needed for making the smart cards at the respective regional transport offices such as smart cards, toners, ribbon and other equipment.Deputy Transport Commissioner’s (DTC) offices in all 13 districts have software to prepare the RC and DL smart cards for which the IT wing of the Road Transport Authority (RTA) supplies the needed stationery every month as per the indent made by the regional offices.Highly placed sources in the Transport Department say that the office stationery has been short in supply from June this year, after the contractor who is supplying the material to both Andhra and Telangana States asked for a revision of prices of the material.He also demanded that to the arrears pending from November last year be cleared, the officials say.According to A. Mohan, DTC (Kakinada), as many as 10,000 applications seeking RCs, DLs are pending with Rajahmundry, Amalapuram and Kakinada RTOs at present. Admitting that the authorities are very much aware of the woes of the vehicle owners, he said: “We are receiving the printing material once in a fortnight, that too, in a little quantity and it is not sufficient. Whenever we are getting the material, we are dispatching 1,000 to 2,000 DLs and RCs at one go.”
