SC mulls pan-India guidelines to prevent road accidents on expressways, national highways

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday mulled formulating pan-India guidelines to prevent road accidents, such as a recent one in Rajasthan’s Phalodi that claimed 15 lives, on expressways and national highways.A bench of Justices J K Maheswari and Vijay Bishnoi flagged the construction of illegal “dhabas” on both sides of national highways and expressways as a possible cause of road accidents and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared in the matter for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), to submit the statutory rules and regulations for initiating action against these eateries.The court also sought to know about the action taken so far, which authority is responsible for initiating it and which bodies are not implementing the provisions.”After discussion between amicus and solicitor general, issues resolved by them, which may be helpful for issuance of the guidelines, also to be produced. In the meantime, parties are at liberty to exchange Google images, which may be helpful in resolving the real problem,” the court ordered.Mehta submitted, “We have the power to remove the illegal dhabas and eateries, but there has been a general delegation to the local district magistrate. The local police and other authorities are under his command and control, which the NHAI does not have. So we have to find out a solution.”Terming the issue non-adversarial, he said normally, there is a service road after certain kilometres on every expressway and national highway, where the vehicles that suffer a breakdown are put.Justice Bishnoi acknowledged that there are service roads but pointed out that it is not the case for every expressway and national highway, and that illegal dhabas and small eateries come up in between, where most of the accidents take place.The bench said the NHAI’s report seeks to blame local contractors or the administration for the encroachments on the highways but the court wants to know which authority under the law is required to oversee that these eateries do not come up.Justice Maheshwari said the court wants to formulate guidelines to fill up the existing gaps in the provisions and ensure their implementation to prevent a repetition of Phalodi-type accidents.



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