Why not have CCTVs on toll plazas: SC asks NHAI, flags highway encroachments

The Supreme Court on Thursday flagged the issue of encroachment and stationary vehicles on highways and asked the National Highways Authority of India why it cannot install a camera surveillance system and monitoring rooms across toll plazas to deal with it.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, which was hearing a suo motu case related to an accident in Rajasthan's Phalodi area that claimed 15 lives, said that encroachment and stationary vehicles on highways were the two major issues.

The counsel appearing for the NHAI said they have issued circulars for regular inspection and patrolling to check unauthorised parking on the highways.

"Why can't you think of having a camera surveillance system? You can have monitoring rooms at all toll plazas," the bench said.

Senior advocate ANS Nadkarni, who is assisting the top court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said one of the major issues was illegal parking of vehicles on highways, which leads to road accidents.

The bench noted that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Tamil Nadu government have not yet filed their compliance affidavits in the matter.

It granted two weeks to both the ministries to file their affidavits.

The bench posted the matter for October 6 and directed the Tamil Nadu government to file an affidavit before the next date of hearing.

In November last year, the top court took suo motu cognisance of the November 2 road accident in Phalodi in which a tempo traveller rammed into a stationary trailer truck.

The incident occurred near Matoda village on the Bharat Mala Highway when the tempo traveller was going from Bikaner's Kolayat temple to Jodhpur.

On April 13, the top court issued a slew of interim directions, including that no heavy or commercial vehicle shall park or stop on any national highway carriageway or paved shoulder except at a designated bay, lay-bye or wayside amenity.

It had also prohibited construction/operation of any new 'dhaba', eatery, or commercial structure within the right of way of any national highway.

The top court directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways/NHAI to identify accident blackspots and critical areas and publish a comprehensive list of accident blackspots on national highways.

"It is seen that national highways constitute approximately 2 per cent of India's total road length but account for nearly 30 per cent of all road fatalities. A road, particularly a high-speed expressway, must not become a corridor of peril due to administrative lethargy or infrastructural gaps," it had said.