NOIDA: Almost four months after Noida Authority assigned the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) the task of conducting a safety audit of the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, the report is scheduled to be submitted by May 15. Officials said, taking into account the frequent accidents on the expressway many of which have been fatal, the survey has focused on several infrastructural and safety lapses.

The CRRI report would also help in identifying black spots on the expressway and suggest means to rectify the accident-prone areas to bring down the accident rate on the 24km stretch. The audit report will try to find the deficient safety measures in design implementation of the expressway. “The audit report is being prepared not only because of the accidents but to obtain an expert opinion on the safety design. No matter how good a design is, there will be deficiencies and we want to rectify these,” said Rajeev Yadav, chief project engineer, Noida Authority.

According to officials, besides giving a quality certification of the expressway, CRRI will also provide corrective measures for each of the detected flaws as well as additional suggestion wherever required. “Once we receive the report from CRRI, changes to make the expressway safe for commuters will be implemented,” Yadav said.

In the past four months, faults relating to the curvatures, shoulder width, crash barriers and signages have also been surveyed by CRRI. The agency also gathered data from secondary sources and an analysis is on. The existing design of the central verge, entry/exit points, safety and emergency measures, foot overbridges, etc have also been on the institute’s scanner.

“The number of vehicles using the expressway keeps increasing every year and there is a need to make changes accordingly and to identify and evaluate infrastructure-related problems. With CRRI’s assistance, we will inspect and upgrade the expressway as well as educate people on traffic discipline,” Yadav added.

Since its inception in 2002, the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway has been the site of hundreds of deaths. In the past six months alone, nearly 20 people have lost their lives while about 50 have been left injured. Authority officials have also proposed to implement an Intelligent Transport System which aims to control incidents of over-speeding, fatal accidents and traffic congestion.

Key features of the ITS would be a control room, emergency call box, message signboards, CCTV, speed cameras, VIDS camera and meteorological data system.

Source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com