'Ggn roads accident prone due to faulty designs'

"Faulty road designs, poor signage systems and poor management of traffic in major roads of the city has made it accident prone", claim experts.

IFFCO Chowk and Bristol Chowk have been listed among the perilous roads to travel for commuters in the National Capital Region in a recent report by School of Planning and Architecture (SPA).

Elucidating the dangers of travelling, the report mentions that on an average a person dies daily due to accidents at IFFCO Chowk. This figure corroborates with the official estimates of eight people dying daily due to road accidents in Gurugram.

Other traffic routes in the NCR that have been found to be vulnerable are Atta Chowk and Secto-37 in Noida, Makbara Chowk, Peeragarhi, Bhajanpura Road and Punjabi Bagh Road in Delhi.

Not only for commuters but the study also highlights that how the routes in Gurugram is unsafe for pedestrians due to a mismatch in the time of pedestrians crossing the road and the duration of the traffic signal lights.

While the average time for the pedestrian to cross the roads was found to be four minutes, the time span for traffic lights has been calculated two minutes.

Besides the study by SPA, a recent report submitted by Gurugram traffic police to Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) identified six routes in the city to be unsafe for commuters and pedestrians due to poor road designs.

These roads are HUDA City Centre, Sirhaul collection point, Shankar Chowk, Wazirabad Point, Artemis Road and Badshahpur bus stand junction.

"The expansion of Gurugram in last 20 years has an adverse effect on the road designs. In most cases, no heed was paid to proper diversions, design, and structure. We have also appointed a consultant to correct the designs of roads that have found to be unsafe," said GMDA officials.

The challenges of road safety are further compounded by movement of a large number of overloaded vehicles clubbed with a number of rash and drunken driving. More than 300 officials were recruited under to prevent such situations in the future.