1.60 lakh over-speeding cases on Yamuna, Noida-Gr Noida expressways

Over 1,60,000 vehicles have been issued challans on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway and the Yamuna Expressway since April 2018 for over-speeding, according to police.

The Gautam Buddh Nagar Traffic Police said these challans were issued via the speed cameras that were mounted on these accident-prone road stretches.

Heavy vehicles are allowed to run up to a speed of 80 km per hour, while lighter ones can go up to 100 km an hour on the Noida-Greater Noida highway and the Yamuna Expressway, where recently 29 people were killed after a passenger bus veered of the road and plunged into a drain in Agra.

Section 188 of the Motor Vehicles Act mandated "speed governors" for commercial vehicles if they were to get a license and a fitness certificate from the Transport Department, a senior official said. Speed governor is a device installed in vehicles that regulates its speed, not letting it move beyond a pre-fixed upper limit.

"With the rising rates of incidents on these highways, we have been using various methods to prevent accidents. Since April 16, 2018, we have issued challans to more than 1,60,000 vehicles," Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Anil Kumar Jha said.

He said amendments in Section 190 of the MV Act now state that medium-category commercial vehicles be penalised Rs 5,000 and heavy ones Rs 10,000 if they are found without a speed governor or with a non-functioning speed governor.

"Such vehicles which are being challaned for over-speeding and driving license is being cancelled in some cases. Now proceedings will be initiated against them for not having speed governors from July 15," he said.

As many as 718 people lost their lives and 7,671 were injured in 4,956 accidents on the Yamuna Expressway between August 2012 and March 2018, according to data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.