'Metal roundabouts cut fatal accidents by 90%', Infra News, ET Infra

MOHALI: Metalled roundabouts installed by the Mohali police at three key black spots have reduced fatal accidents by 90%, said senior superintendent of police (SSP) Sandeep Garg. Mohali police have installed metalled roundabouts fabricated under CSR at three spots in Mohali.

The SSP said after experiencing the success of these three metalled roundabouts, Mohali police were planning to put up such metal roundabouts at other key intersections.

Garg said, “We had installed these three metalled roundabouts two months ago and it has been observed that the accident rate has fallen drastically, reducing the accidents by 90% on these spots. After the success of these roundabouts, we are planning to install such roundabouts at other crossings also. The light reflective ability of these roundabouts make them prominently visible during the nights that makes them much better placed for traffic movements.”

In the past three years, a total of 821 people lost their lives in various road accidents reported in the district. In 2022, the road accidents have seen 31 more people killed as compared to 2021 and in 2020, the fatalities were lesser by 39 deaths in comparison to 2022. The data also points out that in 2022 there are a total of 492 crash cases in which 297 people lost their lives whereas 239 sustained serious injuries and 81 escaped with minor injuries. If further analysed, out of a total of 297 fatalities, around 25 lives are lost every month on Mohali roads due to accidents.

The Mohali administration had earlier installed ‘drums’ as roundabouts, but the concept, however, failed as at two places the drums were stolen. Secondly, commuters also did not take drums as roundabout seriously, said the SSP.

Recently, AAP MLA from Mohali Kulwant Singh took up the issue in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

The MLA raised the issue of solving the issue of traffic-affected intersections from Airport Chowk to Kharar. He said Mohali had several highly sensitive intersections where accidents happen daily. He made a demand to build 16 roundabouts for Mohali city. Stating the demand as legitimate, cabinet minister concerned Aman Arora said the demands mentioned by MLA Kulwant Singh would be completed in three phases.

Recently, Punjab minister for housing and urban development Aman Arora had issued orders to the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (Gmada) to construct roundabouts at major road crossings of the city.

He directed Gmada to make the roundabouts on the pattern of Chandigarh.

Arora said in order to solve the increasing traffic problems in Mohali and to reduce the number of road accidents, the Punjab government was converting the light points in Mohali into roundabouts.