1,500 killed on Mumbai-Goa highway in 6 yrs

Mumbai: Driving from Mumbai to Goa has traditionally been a picturesque and colourful experience, so much so that Bollywood once made a movie on the theme. But over the years, the holiday drive along the Konkan coast has become a death trap due to the unsafe conditions on National Highway 17 (NH-17). Data from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and state Public Works Department (PWD) shows that the Mumbai-Goa stretch saw more deaths than any other of Maharashtra's national highways from 2006 to 2011. 

    However, the NHAI data places the Dhule-Nagpur-Adilabad stretch (portions of NHs 6 and 7) a close second. While there were 1,479 deaths on the Mumbai-Goa stretch (476 km) during those six years, there were 1,471 on the Dhule-Adilabad road, which covers 632 km. Short Pune-Nashik road among deadliest 
    The Mumbai-Goa highway (NH-17) had the most accidents from January 2006 to December 2011 of all the national highways in the state. It had 6,664 accidents in that period, while the Dhule-Nagpur-Adilabad stretch (NHs 6 and 7) was the secondmost accident-prone with 5,130. But, Dhule-Adilabadsaw more serious injuries, with 4,224, to Mumbai-Goa's 4,118. Officials pointed out that the serious injuries may have led to deaths long after the accidents took place, so the actual death counts on these roads may be higher. 
    Surprisingly, the figures tag the relatively short Pune-Nashik highway (NH-50) as one of the five most dangerous in the state. While all the other highways in the top 5 are at least 450 km, the Pune-Nashik road covers barely 196 km but is the state's fourth-most dangerous national highway with 1,168 deaths. 
    The 454-km Solapur-Aurangabad-Dhule highway (NH-211) was the third-most dangerous. It witnessed 3,819 accidents with 1,186 fatalities. The number of serious injuries was 3,310. The 600-km Kalyan-Beed highway (NH-222) was fifth with 1,916 accidents, 914 deaths and 1,479 serious injuries. 
    All the 10 highways in the survey are owned by the NHAI and maintained by it with help from the state PWD. The five most dangerous highways collectively cover 2,358 km of road, which saw 21,014 accidents, 6,218 deaths and 15,216 serious injuries. The next five highways cover just 473 km of road and saw 4,885 accidents, 1,612 deaths and 3,661 serious injuries. 
    The other five highways in the top 10 are the Pune-Solapur (NH-9), Nagpur-Raipur, Ratnagiri-Kolhapur (NH-204) across the Sahyadris, the 23-km Mumbai-Agra stretch up to Bhiwandi (NH-3, also known as the Bhiwandi bypass) and the 30-km Solapur-Vijapur highway near the Maharashtra-Karnataka border. 
    The 234-km Pune-Solapur stretch saw 1,906 accidents with 690 deaths, while the relatively smaller 49-km Nagpur-Raipur stretch saw 1,570 accidents with 601 deaths. The 137-km Ratnagiri-Kolhapur road saw 999 accidents, 162 deaths and 313 serious injuries.