Road Safety of Agglomerating Cities in India– Bhubaneswar

Background: The clashing of vehicles with others inattentively is considered a road accident. Its mapping and mitigation can be addressed through awareness, road engineering interventions; traffic planning, and signaling in the Bhubaneswar city, Odisha as increasing at a fast pace annually.

Introduction: About 11064 Road Traffic Classes (RTCs) causing 5333 mortalities occurred during 2019 which has risen by 12% in the year 2021. There also occurred RTC deaths, traumas, and smashing of vehicles, in Bhubaneswar; the capital city of Odisha, which has raised from zero to nine black spots in the last 3 to 4 decades. Its positioning and topography, and located at critical junctions of the Kolkata-Chennai national highway (NH-16) and NH roads connecting to the pilgrim city of golden sands at Puri (NH 236).

Methodology: Collection of traffic data, traffic study at a few places, geographical information studies, remote sensing of geo-referenced satellite data, use of ERDAS software, and analytical studies to initiate up-gradation proposals for existing risky and vulnerable roads. The agglomerated city needs planning for new routes to address the accidents and reduce traffic congestion during peak hours.

Results: The rising demography, added with daily floating people and heavy traffic plying through NH-16 and NH-316 have caused traffic congestion, delays, and accidents are identified as black spots. The dominant black spots found are at road junctions, Ravi Talkies, Rasulgarh, Vanivihar, CRP, fire station, Baramunda, and Patia. Environmental malfunctions, rider's faults, the mental health of driver and user, and mechanical failures are major causes of RTCs. GIS/RS maps need to be plotted over small-scale maps (1:1000m). Probable black spots are identified and their redressing by proposals of up-gradation, and new road creation have been proposed.