Shimla, Nurpur to get World Bank grant for road safety enforcement

Shimla and Nurpur police districts have received a grant of Rs 51 crore from the World Bank to develop a "safe corridor" along Palampur-Sheela chowk in Kangra.

Shimla aims to establish a traffic enforcement control room and allocate funds for interceptors and patrol vehicles, an intelligent traffic management system, artificial intelligence (AI) cameras, and rescue equipment under the project.

Shimla and Nurpur have been selected for the first phase of the project and Rs 42 crore will be spent on the twin police districts to strengthen their emergency response systems, said DGP Sanjay Kundu.

Himachal Pradesh has seen a drop in accidents from 3,114 in 2017 to about 2,600 in 2022, he said, adding ”We have worked very hard to reduce road accidents in Himachal, and emerged as a role model not only for hill states but all over the world.”

He mentioned Theog, Rampur, Rohru, Kumarsain, Kotkhai, Nerva, Jubbal, Chopal and Sunni, along with the capital city. According to police, Shimla, Mandi and Kangra districts are the most accident-prone districts based on crash data from all districts, site visits, surveys of existing resources, identification of black spots and accident-prone stretches, among others.

Shimla district reported over 1,170 fatalities in about 2,600 road accidents in Himachal Pradesh from 2017 to 2022.

In addition, the Palampur-Sheela chowk stretch of road in Kangra district will be developed as a safe corridor under the Safe Corridor Demonstration Programme (SCDP) at a cost of Rs 9 crore.