State urges NHAI to check illegal parking on highways

In a bid to check unauthorised parking on National Highways that led to the accident of MP Abhishek Banerjee, the state police urged the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to take necessary steps to check the menace. At the same time the local police stations have also been directed to intensify the vigil on the highways.

Senior officers of the state’s home department also held a meeting in Nabanna on Wednesday and decided to bring the state highways under the coverage of surveillance cameras and also urged speedometer installation. It may be mentioned that Banerjee’s car had overturned after hitting a stationary wrecker van that was towing away a milk van that had developed snags.

Manoj Kumar Verma, IGP (Traffic), said direction has been given to intensify the vigil on the highways. At the same time NHAI has been urged to take up certain steps including setting up of more road signs to clearly demarcate the no-parking zones.

“Parking of vehicles on the no parking areas will not be tolerated. Vehicles can only be parked at the earmarked parking areas. In case a snag develops in a vehicle, it has to be towed away immediately from the highways using wrecker vans,” he said.

It may be mentioned that long chassis vehicles carrying motorcars, heavy duty electrical equipments, iron rods are parked illegally on Durgapur Expressway between Dankuni toll plaza and Singur. Many of these vehicles develop snags and leaks are detected on their petrol tanks resulting in spilling over of fuel. This poses a serious threat to motorcars and two-wheelers. As there is virtually no highway patrol the drivers do not park their vehicles on the service roads and station them on the main thoroughfare.

Thus parking of the vehicles at its earmarked places would bring down the number of accidents on highways by manifold. Thus local police stations have been asked to keep a watch on whether any illegal parking is taking place.

NHAI is supposed to ensure availability of wrecker vans as and when required. Thus the police have also urged them to increase the number of wreckers vans. There are 16 national highways in Bengal measuring 2,421 km while there are 19 state highways of 4,235 km.

In Wednesday’s meeting, senior officers of the state home department along with some officials of the state highway development corporation chalked out an elaborate plan to ensure safety and security on people travelling on the highways.

Sources said that it has been planned to install surveillance cameras to bring major parts of the highways under its coverage.