Here's how Odisha plans to curb road accidents along highways

In a bid to reduce road accidents on highways due to illegal parking of heavy vehicles, the Odisha government has decided to set up truck terminals along the highways. In 2021, out of 5,081 accident fatalities, nearly 25 per cent were due to collision of vehicles with illegally parked trucks on the highways, Additional Commissioner Transport, Lalmohant Sethi, told PTI.

The State Transport Authority (STA) has decided to construct truck terminals to streamline vehicle parking on the highways. The STA has invited an expression of interest (EoI) for the construction, development and maintenance of truck terminals on Public Private Partnership (PPP).

The Commerce and Transport department has already identified land at Sundergarh, Balasore, Kendrapada, Angul, Bhadrak and Nabarangpur for the construction of such terminals. Through this project, the state government, aims to reduce accident and fatalities due to parking on roads. Another objective is to make the best use and effective utilisation of resources, and to provide best class facilities for parking of trucks, to prevent encroachments, to provide direct and indirect employment, to encourage redevelopment of neighbourhoods and to achieve foster greater economic health.

All these truck terminals will have facilities such as warehouses and cold storages, restaurants, weighing bridges, loading and unloading areas, dormitories, bathrooms, ATMs, and health clinics, among others.

The bidder will need to finance the total project cost, construction of the truck terminal, and operation and maintenance of the developed facilities. So far, six locations have been identified for this, and these will provide modern and controlled manner truck parking besides generating revenues from commercial establishments developed on the PPP model.

The identified locations have huge potential for monetising by providing truck terminals for parking trucks and developing commercial spaces, the official said. The STA has invited EOI from various local, national and international developers who are well conversant with the development of integrated truck terminals on PPP mode.