This IT capital is second after Delhi in road deaths

This IT capital is second after Delhi in road deaths
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: If bad roads are the bane of Bangalore, the lack of an efficient public transport system is fast pushing the city into the league of the most dangerous cities in the country: Road accident statistics for 2005 reveal that Bangalore is second only to Delhi in terms of fatal accidents and vehicle population.

A comparative analysis of the four metros and Bangalore, conducted by the Bangalore City Traffic Police, states that 1,703 people were killed in road mishaps in Delhi in 2005 while Bangalore recorded 704 deaths.

Mumbai came third with 595 deaths, followed by Chennai (463) and Kolkata (442). In the case of non-fatal accidents, Bangalore leaves the remaining three cities far behind with 6,187 accidents as against Delhi's 6,988.

Despite the high figures of road accidents, the city police have now succeeded in bringing down the number.

Compared to 2005, there were 144 more deaths in 2004.

Incidentally, Bangalore is among the smallest of the five cities, population-wise, but when it comes to number of vehicles, it beats Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Only Delhi surges ahead with a mind-boggling 47.85 lakh vehicles, almost double that of Bangalore's 23.30 lakhs. Kolkata comes last with 9.41 lakh vehicles, according to police statistics.

These figures were collected from the five police commissionerates, and it do not include areas like Greater Mumbai and the suburban parts of the other cities.

Interestingly, Bangalore has the smallest traffic police force among the five cities -- around 1,871 policemen for 4,500 km of roads.

Faced with the overwhelming increase in traffic which threatens to boom further, the city police are now thinking up new ideas.

The road ahead looks difficult for motorists as parking will soon become a major problem.

Already at a premium, parking space on roads may soon become non-existent with the police thinking of using up those precious few feet for vehicle movement.

The one-ways have done the job of streamlining traffic but are almost exhausted, DCP Traffic East M A Saleem told this website’s newspaper.

“We are thinking of developing autorickshaws as a means of public transport, but the system needs to be streamlined first,'' Saleem said.

Delhi Mumbai Kolkata Chennai Bangalore

Road Length (km): 27,000 1,923 1,400 1,800 4,500

Traffic police strength: 4,190 2,200 4,001 2,000 1,871

Vehicle population (lakhs): 47.85 13.00 9.41 22.00 23.30

People killed (2005): 1,703 595 442 463 732

Non fatal accidents: 6,988 2,369 1,318 3,730 6187.