Gurugram, Jan 15 (IANS): Road accidents are still rising on the Western Peripheral Expressway or the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway which was made operational in 2019. According to traffic police data, 17 persons were killed and 10 seriously injured in 2020. The KMP was built for smooth traffic movement and curbing traffic congestion on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway (NH-48).

But as the number of vehicles on the KMP increased, accidents are taking place with increasing frequency on the stretch.

According to the traffic police, the KMP has now emerged as a new black spot. The traffic police have identified several reasons behind the accidents, which include people of the surrounding villages crossing the road on foot or driving at high speed and parking along the roadside without switching on their indicators.

Apart from the KMP, National Highway-48 has also emerged as another killer stretch in Gurugram. According to police records, a total of 194 road accidents took place on the Delhi-Jaipur highway in 2020, in which 116 people died and 105 people were seriously injured.

Besides this, there were 161 road accidents on the state highways in which 92 people lost their lives and 96 people were injured.

The accident data also revealed that the city's internal roads are not safe for travellers. In the 544 accidents that occurred on the city's multiple internal roads, 444 people were critically injured and 116 people died.

"Efforts are being made to curb road accidents on the KMP, Delhi-Jaipur highway and other roads in Gurugram. Apart from this, cameras would also be installed for speed detection and identifying errant drivers on the KMP and the national highway. Soon all the city roads will be monitored via CCTV cameras and the traffic police have already started sending e-challans to the traffic rules violators," said ACP Traffic and Highways Manoj Kumar.