Median gaps on NH-16 pose threat to commuters

BHUBANESWAR: A speeding car hit a truck on NH-16 in Jatni area of Khurda district on July 3. Three people were killed and five injured owing to the fault of the truck, which entered the four-lane road through an unauthorized median gap.
This is not an isolated case. Such accidents occur frequently on the 180km stretch between the Bhubaneswar and Andhra Pradesh border.This stretch has 91 unauthorized median gaps. The national highway route has more than 95 designated median gaps near prominent places and popular crossings along the highway. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has also installed signage for median gaps to warn the drivers to slow down their vehicles and cross the median cautiously. But the unauthorized median gaps have no such signs.
SP (Khurda) Manoranjan Mohanty said, "These unauthorized median gaps create problem for commuters. People cross the road without obeying traffic rules. So collision of vehicles happens at times." He added that If the NHAI gives any requisition to the district police, they will help the authorities block these gaps on the NH 16.
Dharmananda Sarangi, chief general manager of NHAI, Odisha regional office, said he has written to the director general of police asking him to provide security to NHAI for blocking these median gaps.