In the past six months, two-wheelers were involved in around 30 per cent accidents on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway, a release by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) last week disclosed.
The worrying statistics is a shot in the arm for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which had banned two-wheelers and other vehicles on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway from 1 August.
According to a reply in Parliament, since March 2023, when the highway opened for traffic, the first package from Bengaluru to Nidagatta section, has reported 189 accidents and 59 deaths.
While, the second package between Nidagatta and Mysuru has reported 209 accidents and 62 casualties.
Over-speeding-related accidents are a significant contributor to accidents, followed by lane-indiscipline. Nearly 25 per cent of accident cases involved rear-end collisions, mainly due to slow-moving vehicles occupying the right-most lane and not following lane discipline, data shared by the ministry revealed.
Faced with an increasing number of accidents, the NHAI has prohibited two-wheelers, three-wheelers and other slow-moving vehicles like non- motorised vehicles, agricultural tractors (with or without trailers) from using the main carriageways of the Bengaluru-Mysuru access-controlled highway from 1 August.
However, these 2/3 wheelers can use toll free seven-metre wide, two-lane service road that is provided on either side of the highway.
The NHAI had also constituted a committee of road safety experts to carry out safety inspection of the highway, which visited the site during 17-20 July, 2023 and is expected to submit its report soon.
Apart from this, speed limit signboards have been installed at regular intervals all along the highway as per IRC guidelines. Additional informatory boards at all the entry-exit locations are also provided for the guidance to the travellers. Overhead informatory variable message sign (VMS) has been provided.
Also against the prevalent narrative, the 118-km-long Bengaluru–Mysuru corridor is an access-controlled highway and not an expressway. The recent ban notification states that the speed limit for using the main carriageway ranges from 80kmph to 100kmph.
The highway has cut travel time between the two cities in the state of Karnataka by almost half to just 75 minutes and has witnessed a good response.