With Increased Traffic, Border Roads Organisation Takes Steps To Reduce Accident Potential
The roads constructed by Border Roads Organisation (BRO) are used not just by the Armed Forces and Paramilitary Forces, but traversed extensively by tourists and adventure seekers from all over the country.
As quality roads are being constructed in the remotest regions of border areas, tourists and adventure seekers are flocking to these locations in their quest for exploration. Trends indicate increased traffic flow and incidents of overspeeding, leading to an unfortunate increase in traffic-related accidents.
The BRO has now prepared a blueprint for reducing the accident potential of its constructed roads and bridges and has embarked on an extensive exercise to audit the existing roads and bridges.
The BRO aims to conduct the exercise of road safety audit in a graduated manner commencing with a phase-wise internal audit of existing roads, which its core experts will perform.
This audit will identify potential accident-prone sites, irregularities in road geometric and proposed improvement of roadside signage and other roadside furniture, etc.
This phase will enable the auditors in finding gaps that adversely impact road safety. Alongside will be a robust public outreach effort, enhancing awareness of road users, using social media.
The month-long, initial internal audit exercise for road safety has commenced from 15 September in which all the projects of BRO in states of Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh will endeavour to carry out the audit before the onset of winters closes the passes and impedes work.
Also, several actions have already been initiated, the most significant being the establishment of the Centre of Excellence for Road Safety Awareness (CoERSA) at BRO headquarters in New Delhi, which will be the nodal agency for formulation and promulgation of all policies and defining the standard operating procedures for road safety in all its projects.
