Bhubaneswar: The state govt has directed the district collectors to form dedicated highway safety task forces.A senior transport department official said the highway safety task forces will be set up in every district following a Supreme Court directive issued to all states on April 13. “Their mandate is to address safety concerns on national highways through coordinated action, including removal of encroachments and prevention of illegal parking,” the official said.Accidents on national highways have been steadily rising in the state. Transport department data shows 4,317 accidents in 2022 and 4,587 in 2023, resulting in 2,043 and 2,180 deaths respectively.Each task force will have eight members, with the district collector as chairperson, SP or DCP as co-chairperson, additional district magistrate or sub-collector as nodal officer, and the regional transport officer as member convener. Other members will include officials from NHAI, public works department (PWD), municipal administration and the tehsildar.“The collector will oversee coordination, issue directions, review compliance and resolve inter-departmental bottlenecks, while the co-chairperson will focus on police enforcement, highway surveillance, patrolling and support during anti-encroachment drives,” read an order issued by transport secretary N B S Rajpur on Wednesday.The NHAI official will be responsible for highway stretch inventory, encroachment identification, right-of-way demarcation, black spot rectification, and engineering safety works. The task forces are expected to ensure time-bound compliance with the Supreme Court directions on highway safety, encroachment removal, illegal parking control, surveillance and enforcement. They will serve as a permanent inter-departmental coordination mechanism to prevent avoidable accidents caused by encroachments, unsafe roadside activities, illegal parking and infrastructure gaps.Fortnightly review meetings will be held, with minutes maintained and monthly action-taken reports submitted to the transport commissioner. The task forces will also identify unauthorised eateries, garages, shops, parking clusters, vending units and other roadside encroachments, serve notices, and carry out removal action. Existing licences, NOCs, and trade approvals within highway safety zones will be reviewed, and no new approvals will be granted without clearance from NHAI, PWD and the road agency concerned.In addition, the task forces will assess the need for truck lay-bys, wayside amenities, bus bays and pedestrian safety measures to make national highways safer for all users.
