34 accident-prone zones marked in South Dinajpur

BALURGHAT: In a bid to reduce accidents and excessive traffic congestion during office hours, the district traffic police department of South Dinajpur has identified 34 Black-Spots or the most accident-prone zones covering both Balurghat and Gangarampur subdivisions. Of them, 16 spots have been identified as the Special Attention Zones (SAZ).

Sources said special arrangements would be made for 16 SAZ areas. "Adequate policemen will be deployed in SAZ areas particularly within 500 meters of the stretch. Apart from this, anti-accident devices, sufficient lights and manually operated barriers will be set up to reduce the number of accidents," the source added.

A zone is earmarked as black spot if it has witnessed multiple accidents within 500 metres of its radius. The department is now studying four aspects that can be changed to turn the stretch safer including the method of pedestrian movement, changing the traffic signal cycle, making the necessary lane markings and finally ascertaining if road dividers or manually operated barriers can stop people from coming on to the road illegally.

There are Black-Spots on Balurghat-Hili-more, public bus-stand, Paranpur, Baul, Fulbari, Gangarampur bus-stand, Thangapara and Gochihar. Apart from this, Airport Road in Balurghat, Hatkhola Road and Rolar-more in Patiram, Bolla, Zordighi and Kushmandi markets have been marked as SAZ areas.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Gourab Ghosh said the traffic department of South Dinajpur takes several measures to prevent accidents and traffic menace throughout the year.