The Supreme Court on Thursday flagged the issue of encroachment and stationary vehicles on highways and asked the National Highways Authority of India why it cannot install a camera surveillance system and monitoring rooms across toll plazas to deal with it.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, which was hearing a suo motu case related to an accident in Rajasthan’s Phalodi area that claimed 15 lives, said that encroachment and stationary vehicles on highways were the two major issues. The bench posted the matter for October 6 and directed the Tamil Nadu government to file an affidavit before the next date of hearing. In November last year, the top court took suo motu cognisance of the November 2 road accident in Phalodi in which a tempo traveller rammed into a stationary trailer truck. On April 13, the top court issued a slew of interim directions, including that no heavy or commercial vehicle shall park or stop on any national highway carriageway or paved shoulder except at a designated bay, lay-bye or wayside amenity.
The top court directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways/NHAI to identify accident blackspots and critical areas and publish a comprehensive list of accident blackspots on national highways.
Senior advocate ANS Nadkarni, who is assisting the top court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said one of the major issues was illegal parking of vehicles on highways, which leads to road accidents.
