Fatalities rising, but EPE still waits for cameras

NOIDA: Lack of cameras and scant police patrolling have left the Eastern Peripheral Expressway vulnerable to accidents and prompted experts to question if the high-speed corridor was slowly transforming into the next Yamuna Expressway.
Currently, the 135km EPE does not have any cameras. The lack of it is felt mostly by the police, who have to rely on cameras installed only at the toll plazas to identify vehicles in hit and run cases.And with no challans for speeding on the stretch, commuters often throw caution to the wind and vehicles zooming past the speed limit is a common phenomenon.
The expressway has seen at least 25 deaths in the past year and a half. In the accident in which seven persons were killed on Sunday, the police are yet to identify the vehicle that might have hit the Eeco in which the family was travelling to Bulandshahr.
SP (rural) Ranvijay Singh said his force was left with little choice but to rely on CCTV cameras installed at the toll plazas to identify vehicles fleeing after being involved in accidents.
“A team has already examined the cameras installed at the Dadri toll, which was the nearest to the accident site. But with so many vehicles crossing the toll plaza daily, it is very difficult to identify the one involved in the accident,” he added.
On April 27, three persons were killed while two, including a five-year-old child, were injured after the Swift Dzire they were travelling in was hit by an unknown heavy vehicle on the EPE. In that case too, police could not identify the killer vehicle in the absence of cameras.
With at least eight fatal accidents on the EPE since it was thrown open to public in May last year, the Gautam Budh Nagar administration and police say installation of cameras is a must on the stretch.
District magistrate BN Singh had written to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in June last year, suggesting that automatic number plate reading cameras, speed cameras and police outposts be set up on the 41km stretch of the EPE that falls in the district.
On Monday, Singh said the NHAI should replicate the Yamuna Expressway model, where cameras are installed to catch speeding vehicles, on the EPE. “Along with this, support systems such as PCR vans etc should be provided so that response time to emergencies can be be reduced,” he said.
Velu Murugan, senior principal scientist at the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said an expressway needs to have speed monitoring cameras at least every 5km. “Ideally, cameras should be installed every 3km,” he added.
Toll officials, too, agreed that had Sunday’s accident taken place somewhere in the middle of the expressway, it would have taken them much longer to reach the spot.
“In this case, the ambulance managed to reach the spot within 15-20 minutes as the accident happened near the toll plaza. Had it been farther away, it would have taken us a lot of time to reach the accident spot,” a toll operator said.
The EPE stretch in Gautam Budh Nagar does not have a separate police station. The district police, which is already battling lack of personnel, admitted that patrolling on the speed corridor is done only “during an emergency”.
An NHAI official, however, said the accident was the result of overloading and rough driving. “We have been told that the vehicle lost balance because it was filled twice its capacity. As far as CCTV cameras are concerned, we have already procured 35 of a total 143. Their installation will begin in the 35 km stretch from Kundli to Dasna side. The entire system will be functional by March next year,” he said.