Increase patrolling on NHs, Transport dept urges Home

Bhubaneswar: The State Transport department has urged the Home department to increase patrolling on the National Highways in order to put a check on the rising number of accidents.

The department, in a letter, requested for the filling up of vacancies required for the patrolling duty especially on the Jaleswar-Icchapuram, Bhubaneswar-Puri, Sambalpur-Sohelam, Manguli-Sambalpur and Sambalpur-Rourkela  routes where the number of road mishaps have gone up during the last year.

The Transport department also sought suggestions to reduce the frequency of such accidents.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had expressed concern over the "frightening" number of  accident deaths caused due to  potholes on roads across the country. The number of fatalities in such incidents was more than those in terror attacks, the apex court had said.

As per reports more than 1/3rd of the accidents take place on national highways.