ROAD DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA/KERALA



India has a road network of 63.73 lakh km which is the second largest in India in the world. This can be bifurcated as below. a) National Highways - 1,44,634 km. b) State Highways - 1,86,908 km. c) Other  roads - 59,02,539 km

When we take Kerala,the state has 1,812 km National Highways, 4,342 km of state highways numbering about 72 and 25,394 km of major district roads.

As per the quality of the roads, the following countries hold the top rankings. 1. Singapore 2. Netherlands  3. Switzerland  4. Japan 5. Denmark 6. Spain.

As far as road accidents are concerned, as per available information, about 1.5 lakh people die in road accidents in an year in India. In other words it is 1130 accidents and 422 deaths every day. In 2021 there were 4,12,432 accidents reported taking 1,53,972 lives and causing injuries 3,84,448 people in the country.

Now coming back to Kerala there were an average of 12 people died in road accidents every day in 2022. During the period of 2018-2022, there were 1,86,375 road accidents claiming the lives of 19,468 and injuring 2,11,534 people.

The prime reasons for road accidents in Kerala can be the following.  1) Driver's error including over speeding, drunken driving etc. 2) Problems of the vehicles. 3) Poor road conditions. 4) High density of vehicles on the road. Vehicle density in Kerala increased from 60.7 lakhs in 2011 to 148.5 lakhs in 2021. According to a report by The Hindu,  among every 3 Keralites one has a vehicle. The New Indian Express reports that one in four families in the state owns a car. While the number of vehicles are increasing considerably every year, new roads are not coming up to accomodate the added numbers. Since density of population and scarcity of land is another serious problem in constructing new roads and widening the existing roads, the people and the government should seriously consider ways and means to accommodate the added numbers of vehicles continuously.

It is proposed for the urgent consideration of the government to take up the following Highway project. Arrangement may be made for an early survey of a 8 lane State Highway between the south point of Thiruvananthapuram district to the north point of Kasergod district through the eastern region of the state. This Highway should be provided a 6 way link road connecting all district headquarters of the state. If this could be achieved the traffic problem of the state can be brought down considerably.

K V George 

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