As another accident in the prominent Banjara Hills area has claimed a life, the focus turns once more on the state of the roads in Hyderabad and Telangana.
On Tuesday, 31-year-old software engineer D Ramakrishna Reddy was returning home from the office. Riding on Road No. 2 in Banjara Hills, he hit the divider while trying to avoid a pothole, fell off his bike and was killed.
According to the police, Ramakrishna was speeding, and that was the cause of the accident. However, Vinod Kumar Kanumala, founder of the Indian Federation of Road Safety, blames the condition of the road, saying, "as the road is bumpy, one cannot speed."
According to G Vinod Kumar, Banjara Hills Inspector, around 20-30 accidents occur on Road No. 2 every month.
“In the last 5 months there have been seven deaths due to road accidents on Road No. 2, and 20-30 non-fatal accidents take place on that road every month,” he said.
IFROS President Vinod, however, said that these numbers are too low, and alleged that accidents on that road number in the hundreds every month.
He also said that a considerable number of accidents in Hyderabad are caused by poor road quality. Hyderabad has seen a total of 1802 number of road accidents till September this year.
“16 to18 percent of the accidents happening in Hyderabad are due to potholes or bad infrastructure,” said Vinod, “After the flooding, we are getting around 10 complaints every day about the bad road or potholes.”
“We have been talking to MPs and MLAs of Telangana to use local funds to repair the potholes,” he added.
According to the Times of India, in 2015, 1,100 deaths out of a total of 7,102 deaths in road accidents across the state were caused by road defects alone.
Experts say that the problem continues because of the absence of legal provisions fixing accountability for faulty road design and maintenance.
“While the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2016, introduced during the last session of the parliament, addresses various aspects of road safety comprehensively, it can be further strengthened by incorporating provisions related to accountability for faulty road design and poor maintenance of roads,” said Piyush Tewari, founder and chief executive officer, Save Life Foundation.