Supreme Court Presses NHAI on Toll-Plaza CCTV Surveillance After Fatal Highway Collisions
Indiadailyupdate.com – The apex court has turned its attention to a question that cuts to the heart of India’s highway-safety crisis: why toll plazas — the very chokepoints where vehicles slow, stop, and re-enter the carriageway — remain largely blind spots in the national surveillance architecture. In a suo motu matter tracing back to a deadly collision in Rajasthan, a two-judge bench pressed the National Highways Authority of India to explain why it has not deployed camera-surveillance systems and dedicated monitoring rooms at every toll plaza along the country’s arterial roads.
The Phalodi Tragedy That Triggered Judicial Intervention
The case originated in November of last year, when the Court took suo motu cognisance of a November 2 crash near Matoda village on the Bharat Mala Highway in Rajasthan’s Phalodi district. A tempo traveller, travelling from Bikaner’s Kolayat temple toward Jodhpur, slammed into a stationary trailer truck parked on the carriageway. Fifteen people lost their lives in the impact. The incident became the catalyst for a broader judicial inquiry into the systemic failures that allow vehicles to park illegally on high-speed national highways and for infrastructure gaps to persist unchecked.
Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, presiding over the matter, identified two recurring hazards as the principal drivers of highway fatalities: encroachment onto the carriageway by roadside structures and vendors, and the presence of stationary vehicles parked without authorisation. Both problems, the bench observed, are visible from a distance and could be intercepted in real time if adequate monitoring infrastructure existed at strategic intervals.
The Court’s Direct Question to NHAI
During the latest hearing, the bench addressed the NHAI’s counsel directly, challenging the agency’s reliance on periodic inspection circulars as a substitute for continuous technological oversight.
“Why can’t you think of having a camera surveillance system? You can have monitoring rooms at all toll plazas,” the bench said.
The NHAI’s representative responded that the authority had already issued circulars mandating regular inspection and patrolling to detect and remove unauthorised parking. The Court, however, appeared unconvinced that intermittent human patrols could match the speed and scale of the problem, particularly on stretches where traffic flows at expressway velocities.
Amicus Curiae Input and Pending Compliance
Senior advocate ANS Nadkarni, assisting the Court as amicus curiae, reinforced the argument that illegal parking of commercial and heavy vehicles on national highways constitutes one of the leading precursors to fatal accidents. His intervention underscored that the issue is not merely one of nuisance but of life-and-death consequence for drivers who cannot brake in time.
The bench also noted that three key respondents — the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Government of Tamil Nadu — had yet to file their compliance affidavits. The matter was adjourned to October 6, with a specific direction that the Tamil Nadu government must deposit its affidavit before the next scheduled hearing.
Earlier Interim Directions and the Broader Safety Mandate
The Court’s intervention did not begin with the toll-plaza question. On April 13, the bench issued a sweeping set of interim directions aimed at restructuring how national highways are managed day to day. Among the key mandates:
No heavy or commercial vehicle may park or stop on any national highway carriageway or paved shoulder except at a designated bay, lay-bye, or wayside amenity. Separately, the construction or operation of any new dhaba, eatery, or commercial structure within the right of way of a national highway was prohibited outright. The Court also directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and NHAI to identify accident blackspots and critical areas and to publish a comprehensive, publicly accessible list of those locations.
In framing the urgency of these measures, the bench observed:
“It is seen that national highways constitute approximately 2 per cent of India’s total road length but account for nearly 30 per cent of all road fatalities. A road, particularly a high-speed expressway, must not become a corridor of peril due to administrative lethargy or infrastructural gaps.”
Why Toll Plazas Are the Logical Surveillance Nodes
Toll plazas occupy a unique position in the highway ecosystem. They are the points where vehicles decelerate, queue, and re-accelerate; where drivers’ attention fragments; and where the carriageway narrows. A monitoring room positioned at each plaza, fed by a ring of cameras covering the approach, the plaza itself, and the exit ramp, would give traffic authorities a continuous, real-time picture of exactly where stationary vehicles appear and where encroachment begins. The cost of installing such systems is modest relative to the economic and human toll of preventable collisions. The Court’s question, in effect, asks NHAI to justify inaction rather than to propose a new policy.
India’s national highway network carries a disproportionate share of intercity freight and passenger traffic. The concentration of fatalities on a tiny fraction of total road kilometres means that even marginal improvements in monitoring and enforcement at chokepoints can yield outsized reductions in deaths. The Phalodi crash, in which a moving vehicle struck a parked one at speed, is the archetypal scenario that continuous surveillance at toll plazas and lay-byes is designed to prevent: a stationary truck visible on camera minutes before a tempo traveller reaches the point of impact gives operators the window to dispatch a patrol, activate variable-message signs, or alert approaching drivers.
As the October 6 hearing approaches, the compliance affidavits still owed by three government entities will determine whether the Court’s directions remain aspirational or translate into enforceable operational changes. The toll-plaza surveillance question, meanwhile, has moved from a policy suggestion to a judicial directive awaiting a reasoned answer from the agency charged with building and maintaining the roads themselves.
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