Govt launches drive to remove speed breakers from national highways

The Union government has launched a special drive to remove speed breakers on national highways to ensure high-speed traffic without any hindrance.

The speed breakers result in considerable delay, damage to the vehicles and significant discomfort to vehicle occupants and more fuel consumption due to acceleration and deceleration, the road ministry said, adding that the initiative will save time, money and facilitate smooth vehicular movement especially to ambulances, elderly and unwell people commuting on national highways.

"In the larger context, this will also ensure avoidable wastage of transportation fuel for which country is heavily import-dependent, and will also result in lesser pollution," the road ministry added.

The move comes within a month of implementation of FASTag on toll plazas. With the removal of speed breakers or rumble strips at toll plazas, the government also expects smoother flow of traffic in FASTag lanes as well.

As of December 31, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was able to collect over Rs 52 crore daily in electronic transactions through FASTags. Over 1.15 crore FASTags have been issued so far and more than 1 lakh FASTags are issued every day.