In response to a high number of road accidents on the Bengaluru-Mysore Access Controlled Highway, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has constituted a Road Safety Committee. The committee aims to conduct a thorough safety inspection of the highway to identify and address potential hazards.
The Road Safety Committee, announced in an official order, includes Sudershan K Popli (Advisor Road Safety), Praveen Kumar (Deputy General Manager and Regional Safety Officer, Bangalore), and Jaivardhan Singh (Manager, Project Implementation Unit, Sohna).
The committee will visit the highway from July 17 to July 20, to assess road infrastructure, signage effectiveness, traffic management, and address safety concerns. The committee will submit its report within 10 days after the completion of the visit.
TNM had earlier reported that the expressway witnessed 91 deaths since its inauguration in March 2023. Mobility experts attribute this surge in accidents to three main factors: overspeeding, poor road design, and lack of driver education.
Former minister and BJP MLA Suresh Kumar has raised concerns regarding the safety measures implemented by the Karnataka government to address the increasing number of fatalities on the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway. In response to his query, Home Minister G Parameshwara provided information in the Assembly on Tuesday, July 11, stating that 100 individuals had lost their lives on the highway. However, Suresh Kumar disputed this figure, claiming that based on his calculations, there have been 132 fatalities since the expressway's inauguration in March of this year. He further specified that out of these deaths, 63 occurred in the Ramanagara district, 65 in Mandya, and four in Mysuru. Parameshwara acknowledged that there are multiple issues affecting the road's safety.