High court seeks rethink on 60km speed cap on parts of Kiratpur-Manali highway
Kullu: The Himachal Pradesh high court has asked for a rethink on the 60-km speed limit fixed on certain stretches of the Kiratpur-Manali highway, particularly in Bilaspur district of the state, as it is resulting in a large number of speed violations and automatic challaning.
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In an order issued on May 20 in an ongoing case, a bench of Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia and Justice Ranjan Sharma observed that the speed limit of 60 km per hour was fixed despite the presence of dividers on the highway. "The speed limit may require a rethink keeping in view the fact that there are dividers as such separating the traffic on the highway. The speed limit is resulting in a large number of traffic violations, especially by tourists heading for Manali," the HC observed.
The HC further stated in its order that the speed camera challans are flooding the court as a result of the high number of violations. "A large number of speed challans are flooding the court on account of the automatic camera challan system. This aspect also needs to be examined by the competent authority," stated the bench in its order while impleading Bilaspur superintendent of police as a respondent in the case.
The HC's observations came on a petition filed last year by Madan Sharma, general secretary, Fourlane Visthapit and Prabahavit Samiti (FVPS), an organisation that works for the people displaced by highway projects.
In his petition, Sharma requested the court's intervention in directing the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to build foot-over-bridges, footpaths, retaining walls, and breast walls on the highway to minimise accidents.
Over a dozen speed cameras are installed on the national highway stretch of around 35 km that falls in the Bilaspur district. These cameras, part of the Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS), catch vehicles whose speed exceeds 60 km per hour, and the challans are issued online to violators. As most tourists from outside the state are unaware of the speed limit and the installed cameras, they often end up violating the speed limit unknowingly.
However, comparatively, there are very few speed cameras installed on the rest of the around 150-km stretch of the national highway that falls in the Mandi and Kullu districts.
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