Taking serious note of road frequent road accidents in the Chenab region and Pir-Panchal range of the Jammu region, the J&K and Ladakh High Court directed the Union Territory administration to take some effective steps to check deaths on roads.
A Division Bench of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh at Jammu comprising Chief Justice N. Kotiswar Singh and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi directed the government to constitute an expert committee.
The committee must consist of a Professor from IIT Jammu having expertise in road safety, an engineer to be nominated by the Chief Engineer SAMPARK, an executive engineer to be nominated by the Chief Engineer PWD(R&B), Jammu and Prof.(Dr.) G.M. Bhat- former Head of the Department (HoD) of the Department of Geology, the University of Jammu who is an acclaimed expert in landslides on the national highways.
The Division Bench further directed that Divisional Commissioner, Jammu who is already appointed as Nodal Officer in this PIL will coordinate the functioning of the Expert Committee. The Expert Committee has been directed to visit and inspect Mughal Road, the Batote-Doda-Kishtwar stretch, and the Ramban area of highways.
These significant were issued on three PILs filed by Intikhab Ahmed Qazi, Bar Association Doda, and Asif Iqbal Bhat highlighting frequent road accidents and the "dance of death" in the Pir-Panchal and Chenab regions.
The expert committee has been directed to submit its report by or before the first week of February 2024. The PIL will come up for further proceedings on February 13th, 2024.
The three-member-panel already submitted its report
A three-member panel constituted by the J&K Government after the November 15 bloodiest accident in the Assar area of Doda has already submitted its report.
The three-member panel was comprised of the Additional District Magistrate (ADM), Doda Ravi Kumar Bharti, Superintending Engineer PWD, Doda Rampaul Gupta, and Assistant Regional Transport Officer (ARTO) Doda.
The three-member inquiry committee submitted its report to the Divisional Commissioner Jammu suggesting some effective measures to be taken to avoid the reoccurrence of such incidents in the Chenab region-comprising Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban districts of Jammu province.
Accidents on the roads of the mountainous Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban districts of Jammu and Kashmir, known as the Chenab region, have become a routine affair. There is hardly any day when someone doesn't die or get hurt in some traffic accident in the region.
The roads in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in the Chenab region have become death traps. According to the Union Ministry of Road, Transport, and Highways, Jammu and Kashmir rank second across India in the number of road accidents per 10,000 vehicles with an average of over 900 deaths every year in the last five years.
- On September 14, 2018, 17 passengers were killed and 16 injured when a mini-bus skidded off the road and plunged into a gorge in the Dandaran area of Kishtwar district.
- 21 people were killed and 15 injured when an overcrowded mini-bus fell into a gorge on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, near Kela Morh, in Ramban district on October 6, 2018.
- On July 1, 2019, 35 people were killed and 17 injured when an overloaded mini-bus veered off the road and fell into a gorge in Kishtwar's Sirgwari area.
- On September 14, 2022, 11 people, including four women, died and 29 were injured when an overcrowded mini-bus plunged into a gorge in Poonch district.
- In a tragic accident, two engineers among three officials of the Roads and Building (R&B) Department were killed and another engineer was critically injured when their vehicle skidded off the road and plunged into a deep gorge in Doda district on November 14, 2022.
- On May 30, 2023, 10 Vaishno Devi pilgrims, most of them from Bihar, were killed and 57 injured as their bus skidded off the road and rammed into the railing of a bridge, before falling off it at Jhajjar Kotli in Jammu district.
- On May 24 this year, seven people were killed and three injured after a cruiser vehicle skidded off the road and fell into a gorge at the Dangduru dam site in the Dachhan area of Kishtwar.
- Eight people were killed and three seriously injured when their car skidded off the road and plunged into a 300-foot gorge in Kishtwar on August 30.
- On June 27, five people were killed and 12 injured when their vehicle fell into a gorge on the Bhadarweh-Pathankot road in Doda.
- Four people, including women, were killed and five injured after a car fell into a roadside gorge at Thannamandi in Rajouri district.
- Six people were killed in road accidents in Doda on October 8 and October 20.
- On November 6, three people were killed and at least 16 injured in a road accident in the Rehan area of Rajouri district.
- 39 people were killed when an ill-fated bus fell into a deep gorge in the mountainous Doda district on November 15, 2023.
- Three persons were killed in a road accident on November 20 in the Thanamandi area in Rajouri district.
