Danger seems to lurk in the 700-metre (0.7 km) stretch of the Khammam-Aswaraopet section of National Highway 365BB that runs along the Nagarjunasagar Project (NSP) canal devoid of safety barriers in Khammam town.
The canal stretch extending from NTR Circle to Sri Sri Circle, without protection wall, is posing danger to motorists.
In the absence of a protective mechanism, the long canal stretch could turn into a death trap for motorists as hundreds of vehicles criss-cross it daily, commuters fear.
Several narrow bridges and culverts with dilapidated parapet walls and a few without proper railings across the NSP canals and various streams in different parts of the erstwhile Khammam district continue to pose grave danger to commuters.
The NSP left canal, the lifeline of thousands of farmers, spans over a distance of 117 km in the district. It passes through around 35 bridges and culverts built more than four decades ago.
Though some of the bridges, including one at Pallegudem on the Khammam-Mahabubabad main road, were repaired, several others are yet to be refurbished.
There were several fatal road accidents on the bridges and culverts that claimed quite a few lives in the past.
The horrific car accident at Gollagudem on the city suburbs in September last year has turned the spotlight on the need for strengthening safety mechanism at bridges across canals.
A pregnant woman and her mother-in-law were killed when the car they were travelling in nosedived into the NSP canal at Gollagudem. Husband of the pregnant woman, who was driving the car, had a miraculous escape.
Local police attributed the accident to “driver’s mistake” saying he lost control over the wheel while reversing the car on the slope of the approach road of the bridge after attending nature’s call on the roadside.
Ten passengers were killed and 16 others injured when a private bus plunged into the canal of the Palair reservoir after it crashed into a temporary protection wall on the narrow bridge near Nayakangudem in Kusumanchi mandal in 2016.
The enormity of the tragedy and the subsequent public outcry prompted the authorities to initiate corrective measures such as installing crash barriers and laying speed breakers at a few accident prone spots on the Khammam-Suryapet highway.
In the same year, a month-old baby was killed and 10 persons were injured when an RTC bus fell into the canal almost at the same spot.
Twelve passengers were injured when a bus ploughed into the roadside ditch along the weir of the Palair reservoir at Nayakangudem in October 2017.
In a ghastly accident, eight schoolchildren were killed and 20 others injured after a school bus carrying them plunged into a stream while crossing an old bridge without safety barriers at Tungaram in Chandrugonda mandal in March 2012.
As many as 84 black spots were identified in the district’s road network by the police department in coordination with other allied departments recently.
A collaborative strategy has been worked out to fix these black spots to prevent road mishaps. Most of these black spots are located on NH 365BB.
About a half-km. stretch of this NH at the bridge across the weir of the Palair reservoir near Nayakangudem earned notoriety as the treacherous accident-prone spot. More than a dozen accidents occurred on this stretch in the last three years.
Recurring road accidents on the Gopalapuram-NSP canal stretch of the NH 365BB has become a cause of concern for road users.
When contacted, Roads and Buildings Department (NH Wing) Divisional Engineer Thaneswar told The Hindu that a proposal has been sent to the government for erecting crash barriers along the NSP canal stretch of the NH 365BB from NTR Circle to Sri Sri Circle in Khammam to improve road safety.
