The killer Agra-Lucknow Expressway

36 dead, 222 injured in 402 accidents in three months

Agra April 30 (IANS) In just 90 days, the 302 km long Agra-Lucknow Expressway has taken 36 lives, injuring 222 people in over 400 accidents.

These figures have been culled out of RTI applications filed by Supreme Court lawyer KC Jain.

Talking to IANS, Jain said “the situation was truly alarming. The Yamuna Expressway continues to take a heavy toll of lives with almost a daily accident. But we have not learnt any lessons. Now the new Agra-Lucknow Expressway is killing people, because precautionary measures have not been taken.”

According to the data made available by the UP Expressways Industrial Development Authority, from August 2017 to March 2018 there were 858 accidents resulting in death of 100 people. Between April 2018 and December 2018 there were 1113 accidents with 91 deaths. In 20 months there were 2368 accidents leading to 227 deaths. This is alarming indeed ! Road safety experts are intrigued at the lack of serious interest by concerned authorities to check the number of accidents. “Initially this Expressway was not popular, but now the traffic is shifting from the national highway to the new Expressway, due to traffic jams and road blocks at dozens of points. People boast having covered the distance in less than three hours, not realizing the high risks they take,” commented KC Jain. Each day the ambulance costs and the hospitalization charges incurred by the YEIDA continue to soar, but they are not doing what they should have done by now on top priority, Jain added.

Every quarter around 2.5 lakh vehicles use the Expressway, generating about Rs 18 crores as toll collection each month, but the Authority has not been able to spend money on installing automatic number plate reader cameras and other sensitive equipments every 20 kms to monitor speed violations.

The YEIDA has proposed to install equipments at ten places along the 302 km long Expressway. On the other hand, the 165 km long Yamuna Expressway has such monitoring cameras  at ten places.