Accident-Prone Highway 'Black Corridors' Claims 37,164 Lives In Three Years

Accident-prone 'black corridors' across Indian National Highways claimed 37,164 lives between 2023 and 2025, as per the Ministry of Road Transport, the Times of India reported.

Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari informed the parliament that a total of 6,3658 such corridors have been identified based on Electronic Detailed Accident Report (eDAR). Black corridors are continuous highway stretches that qualify as accident black spots due to high rates of fatal and grievous crashes.

Officials identified the stretches in real time. They used artificial intelligence-based tools and data from the Electronic Detailed Accident Report (e-DAR) platform to map the risk zones.

States With Most Corridors

Government data presented in the upper house shows Tamil Nadu has the highest number of such black corridors at 958. Uttar Pradesh is second with 671 stretches, followed by Karnataka with 607.

Other states with high concentrations of dangerous roads include Maharashtra with 477 corridors. Kerala and Andhra Pradesh have 386 and 384 stretches respectively.

Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu recorded the highest individual count with 70 black corridors. Other high-risk jurisdictions include Pune Rural with 60 stretches and Trichy with 56. Purba Medinipur has 52, while Cuddalore and Palakkad recorded 49 and 48 respectively. The district-wise figures were provided to a separate Rajya Sabha question.

Government Safety Mitigation Plans

The government informed Parliament that immediate mitigation efforts, including road markings, warning signs, crash barriers, road studs and delineators, are underway. The measures also include closing unauthorised median openings and introducing traffic-calming steps.

Permanent engineering fixes involve improving road geometry and junctions, widening the carriageway at specific locations and constructing underpasses or overpasses. The ministry informed that permanent works face delays due to land acquisition, forest clearances and the shifting of utilities.

Road-safety audits have also been made mandatory for National Highways at the design, construction, pre-opening, operation and maintenance stages. The Centre said Road Safety Officers have been designated at regional offices of road-owning agencies to oversee audits and other safety-related work. The e-DAR platform, meanwhile, acts as a central repository for reporting, managing and analysing road-accident data.

Delayed National Highway Projects

Union Minister in a written response also said that among the 1,191 national highway projects currently under construction, 629 projects have crossed their original completion schedule.

Whereas, poor construction quality also drew penalties. The government penalised or blacklisted 103 contractors and concessionaires for poor quality work between 2023-24 and 2025-26, Gadkari added in a separate reply.

The response appears as parliament remains locked in gridlock. Opposition leaders forced multiple adjournments, halting the monsoon session for three days after its July 20 start. They want a debate on alleged police violence against youth demonstrating at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

Opposition members also called for the prompt resignation of the Union Education Minister. The Lok Sabha adjourned until 2:00 PM on its fourth day as protests continued.