Mumbai-Goa highway amongst country’s deadliest roads
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Local Press Co 5-point Snippet
1. The recent death of seven Dombivli residents, in an accident involving a Wagon R and Shivneri bus near Raigad’s Inadpur, has once again brought to light the unsafe nature of the stretch of road that is Mumbai-Goa highway.
2. According to reports, the lack of maintenance and inability to improve the existing infrastructure results in over 1000 accidents accidents each year.
3. According to stats obtained by HT from the State Highway Police, a total of 3,358 accidents took place on the Mumbai-Goa highway from 2013 to 2015. The 3000 plus accidents resulted in the death of 580 people and left 2000 injured in the 3 year period. Last year alone, 174 people lost their lives in the 1088 accidents.
4. The primary cause of accidents is overtaking on the narrow roads and lack of dividers. Although the National Highway Authority of India has ordered a widening of roads, the process is moving at a snail’s pace.
5. Last year, Raigad police had conducted a survey in their jurisdiction and identified over 50 ‘extremely dangerous’ accident prone spots. Considering that only a part of the stretch falls under the Raigad police’s jurisdiction, there are bound to be many such spots across the across the 475 km highway.
