Hot spots, identified as most accident-prone junctions in Ranipet district, will be much safer as the district police installed solar-powered road safety equipment, including automated traffic signals, barricades, reflectors, tree-reflector lights and solar studs at these junctions on Wednesday.
Superintendent of Police (SP) D. V. Kiran Shruthi launched the initiative at Santhamedu junction in Ranipet town. After getting bifurcated from Vellore district in mid-2019, Ranipet district has such solar-powered traffic signals and other road safety facilities only at Muthukadai junction near Walajah.
“Based on field reports from the traffic wing, accident-prone junctions in the district were identified. The new road safety equipment installed at these junctions will help reduce accidents, especially fatal ones during night,” R. Saravanan, Technical Inspector, Police Telecommunication Unit (Ranipet), told The Hindu.
Under the initiative, 10 accident-prone junctions, including Kannamangalam Koot Road near Arcot town, Kodaikaal Mottur junction in Sholinghur, Padavettu Amman Koil junction in Walajah, Bazzar Road junction in Arakkonam and Panapakkam junction in Nemili town, were identified based on frequent movement of vehicles and total road space. Most of these junctions are maintained by the Department of State Highways. The initiative was executed from the Road Safety Fund 2021-22 with the procurement of traffic equipment costing ₹76 lakh.
