48 highway black spots in identified Tirupati; to be fixed in 60 days

Tirupati: Tirupati district collector S Venkateshwar said all the black spots identified on the Tirupati highways will be addressed in the next 60 days, in tune with the chief minister's ‘Zero death policy'. The district administration has identified 48 accident-prone black spots on the national highways, which witness heavy traffic every day.As part of ensuring road safety along the national highways, a team led by collector S Venkateshwar and superintendent of police L. Subbarayudu took up a daylong travel across the vast highway stretches in the district on Tuesday.Officials representing the revenue, transport, police, roads and buildings, and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) took out the ‘Bus Yatra' from the black spot identified at Nendragunta junction on the western end of the district and identified every such spot, such as Swarnamukhi bridge at Srikalahasti, Sullurpeta junction, Vinnamala cross near Naidupeta, Bodilingampadu junction in Tada mandal and Ozili junction.Venkateswar called it unfortunate that the Tirupati, Chittoor and Nellore districts ranked at the top in terms of road accidents." About 550-560 persons are losing their lives on an average every year in Tirupati district," he said, attributing it to a variety of reasons such as the huge congregation of devotees to Tirumala, the ongoing NH expansion works, overnight travel to cover longer distances, overspeeding, signal jumping, nonadherence to safety practices like helmets and seat belts, lane crossing, etc.The places that witnessed at least two accidents in a row last year were identified as black spots, and all the departments have been roped in to collectively address the same by correcting the structural lapses, problems in the highways, and creating awareness among the local residents and vendors, etc.Subbarayudu said the department deployed monitoring staff with alcohol meters and speed guns to act tough on drunk driving and overspeeding, respectively, besides affixing blinkers and rumble strips on roads, installing traffic signals, etc.