60% black spots causing 28,765 highway deaths in three years rectified: Govt

India is among one the countries with an alarmingly high number of deaths on highways that happen due to road accidents. The black spots are especially the spots where the majority of fatal highway accidents happen. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in a response to a query made under the RTI Act has said that it has rectified around 60% black spots across India that caused 28,765 road deaths from 57,329 road accidents between 2016-2018.

NHAI has claimed that it spent ₹4,512.36 crore in rectifying these black spots. The rectifications were reportedly started back in 2019. These black spots are usually the 500 metre stretches on national highways where either five road accidents or ten fatalities took place between 2016-2018.

NHAI also said that a total of 3,996 black spots have been identified on national highways across India. During 2019-20, a total of 729 black spots were rectified, while during 2020-21, a total of 1,103 black spots were rectified. During 2021-22 up to September 2021, 583 black spots have been rectified, claimed NHAI.

It also said that NHAI aims to rectify 790 black spots by March 2022. NHAI also targets to fix 791 black spots across India in 2022-23. NHAi also said that it has rectified 2,415 of the 3,996 identified black spots across India, translating into a 60.43 per cent fixing rate.

According to the data, the maximum number of fatalities during the abovementioned years were registered in Tamil Nadu, as the state recorded 4,408 fatalities. Uttar Pradesh also registered at 4,218 fatalities. In Delhi, 31 black spots were identified that resulted in 772 crashes and 270 fatalities during the abovementioned period.

In Tamil Nadu, 496 black spots were recorded, while West Bengal, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh registered 450, 408, 357, 336 and 327 black spots.