Summary:
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu has one of the highest rates of fatalities in road accidents , but over the last three years the state has made safer just three of the 78 black spots on national highways . “Work is in progress at 16 black spots and others are in different stages of implementation” said a senior NHAI official from the Chennai Regional Office. Up to June this year, three black spots had been made safe by the NHAI by widening the roads and easing the curves and gradients. Black spots are stretches where more than 20 accidents with fatalities are reported every year for three years.The worst of these stretches are on the Chennai-Trichy-Theni, Nilgiris-Coimbatore-Nagapatinam, and Kanyakumari-Madurai-Hosur stretches. National highways make up just 8% of the total road network in Tamil Nadu, but see 70% of road accidents with fatalities.These accident-prone stretches were identified by an expert committee of the Union road transport ministry in 2015 based on a field study and discussions with local police and revenue officials..