Gurgaon: Only 20% of the road-safety works outside the city schools have been completed in six months. The project began in March.At a meeting of the District Road Safety Committee (DRSC), officials were told the road-owning agencies concerned did not provide a status report when asked about the progress.The city has identified the danger, mapped the schools and assigned agencies to fix unsafe roads around them. Yet four out of five identified safety works, listed by teachers, remain incomplete.The delay comes amid the rollout of the city’s safe school zone programme under the Gurgaon Vision Zero initiative. The city’s first such zone was launched at Kadipur in March.The committee has now directed the preparation of an agency-wise list of schools to fix responsibility and track completion.The idea is to redesign the road environment around schools — not merely put up a school signboard — with safer footpaths and crossings, speed calming, road markings, signage and designated pick-up/drop-off areas.The first phase of the city’s programme identified 11 govt and private schools: Govt Primary School, Badhshahpur; Govt Senior Secondary School, Dunela; Govt Secondary School, Budhera; Govt Secondary School, Kadipur; Govt Secondary School, Harsuru; Govt Secondary School, Bhondsi; Govt Secondary School, Sukhrali; Govt Secondary School, Bhimnagar; Amity International, Sector 46; The Shri Ram School, Aravali; and DPSG School.The administration had earlier said these zones would include upgraded road stretches, school-zone markings, speed restrictions, footpaths, waiting areas and properly aligned zebra crossings.The need is particularly acute because a district survey of nearly 350 schools found 137 needing road-safety interventions — 21 requiring urgent road repairs and 116 needing speed-calming measures. Authorities have planned 25 model safe school zones.The problem is not new. An earlier traffic-police survey of schools found missing pedestrian crossings, refuge spaces and railings, encroached footpaths, inadequate speed breakers and a lack of designated pick-up/drop-off areas.At Kadipur, where Haryana’s first safe school zone was created, a mobility assessment found more than 70% of students walked to school, underlining why pedestrian infrastructure matters.But even the model zone has faced execution problems. “In July, a 500-metre stretch at Kadipur was found damaged after drainage work, with parts of the pedestrian infrastructure affected as schools reopened,” said an official.For parents, the concern is not theoretical. “We are worried about safety of children. Vehicles often drive on the wrong side to avoid traffic, and there have been incidents where children were hit,” parent Sareen had told TOI earlier while describing school-hour traffic chaos.The latest DRSC finding therefore raises a simple question: If authorities know which school roads are dangerous, why are 80% of the identified fixes still waiting?For a city trying to build “zero-fatality” roads, the answer may lie less in identifying risks and more in making agencies deliver on them.
