The Supreme Court has issued a slew of pan-India guidelines for enhancing road safety, including a ban on parking of heavy vehicles on expressways. The court observed that expressways must not become corridors of peril due to administrative lethargy or infrastructural gaps.
A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and AS Chandurkar pointed out that national highways constitute two percent of India's total road length but account for nearly 30 percent of all road fatalities.
The court directed the Ministry of Road and Transport, National Highways Authority of India, and States and Union Territories to make roads safer, observing that the loss of even a single life to avoidable hazards like illegal parking or blackspots represents a failure of the State's protective umbrella.
The court also prohibited the construction/operation of any new dhaba, eatery, or commercial structure within the Right of Way of any national highway and directed the district magistrates to enforce demolition/removal of all new or existing unauthorised structures within 60 days.
The bench further directed the constitution of a district highway safety task force in every district across India within seven days, comprising officers of the district administration, police, NHAI, PWD, and local bodies.
