J&K road safety in peril: 46 lakh fines, 8 lakh new vehicles, 4,000 deaths in 5 yrs

Inadequate road infra, poor safety plan execution fuel chaos on roads amid rising vehicles

Jammu: The exponential increase in vehicle registrations, juxtaposed with the alarming rise in road fatalities and persistent chaos on roads over the last five years, exposes the glaring flaws in the planning and implementation of much-touted J&K’s Road Safety Policy, notwithstanding significant financial investments.
According to official statistics, over eight lakh vehicles, including nearly seven lakh non-transport vehicles, were registered in Jammu and Kashmir between 2020 and October 2024, without proportional expansion in road infrastructure, leading to increased congestion and risks.
To everyone’s dismay, the staggering death toll of over 700 in road accidents in just the first ten months of current year raises serious doubts about the effectiveness of the Union Territory’s Road Safety Policy. This comes despite the J&K traffic police redoubling and intensifying enforcement, penalizing over 25 lakh motorists for various violations in just two years up to October 2024.
“Nothing seems to have changed on ground if one takes into account the fatalities in road accidents. The statistics paint a grim picture as nearly 4,000 fatalities occurred on J&K roads over the past five years. During this time, the number of traffic violations penalized jumped from 4.20 lakh in 2020 to 13.72 lakh in 2023, totaling around 46 lakh violations. Despite stricter enforcement, road safety outcomes remain dismal,” the official figures said.
A transport department official, who wished not to be named, expressed concern over the unchecked registration of vehicles, with over eight lakh new registrations recorded in five years and no corresponding measures to curb the trend. “The department has no provision to discourage the purchasing spree,” the official said while emphasizing the urgent need for corrective action.
The official said the call for stricter measures has gained urgency following a tragic accident involving underage drivers in Kashmir, which claimed the lives of two teenagers and injured two others. “The incident has reignited demands for more robust enforcement of traffic rules,” he said. Various groups, including political parties, are also calling for stricter enforcement of traffic rules to prevent such incidents in the future.
“There is an immediate need for a more effective implementation of road safety policy to tackle rising fatalities,” the official said, adding, “However, this requires active cooperation from the public, especially parents.”
When contacted, Rajesh Kumar Gupta, Chief Engineer, Public Works Department, Jammu acknowledged the infrastructure deficit, saying “The road length has increased significantly, but more improvements are needed to match the region's growing vehicular population. The ongoing mega road projects will bring relief to the people”.
Pertinently, the then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir N N Vohra in 2016 had approved a road safety policy with an objective “to reduce fatalities and injuries in road mishaps by 2020 considering 2016 as the base year”. However, the sluggish implementation of the policy has failed to yield desired results with the rising number of fatalities remaining a cause of concern for stakeholders in the Union Territory.

Updated On 11/22/2024 2:23:20 AM