How many identified black spots rectified on national highways, Centre asks Himachal

Shimla: The Centre has asked the Himachal Pradesh government to submit a detailed report on how many identified black spots on the state’s national highways have been rectified.

This directive comes ahead of a high-level review meeting to be held by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on May 1 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.

The meeting will be attended by top officials from the Public Works Departments (PWD) and national highway authorities of various states, including Himachal Pradesh.

Himachal PWD Secretary Abhishek Jain, along with other senior officials, is expected to represent the state at this crucial session.

Black spot mapping, repair work under scrutiny

Himachal Pradesh, like several other states, has witnessed a number of technical flaws along its national highway network.

Acting on previous directives from the Centre, the state prepared a detailed project report (DPR) last year to address these black spots —accident-prone areas that require urgent engineering corrections.

While some rectification work has been completed, the Centre now wants an updated account of how many spots still remain to be fixed.

Deadline nears as fatalities prompt urgency

The push from the Centre follows a nationwide surge in road accident fatalities. In response, the Ministry of Road Transport had instructed all states to fix identified black spots by May 2025.

At that time, Union Road Secretary Anurag Jain disclosed that over 9,000 black spots had been identified across the country. State governments were told to create DPRs and rectify all engineering faults within the set deadline.

TNR News Network