2. "You're nuts... You're crazy,"
blurted out Ulhas Ambegaonkar, CEO of www.truckbussale.com, when I asked him
to step out on the Solapur-Pune Expressway and make a call to the control room,
managed by the concessionaire - a Tata group company on a sunny August
afternoon this year, from the roadside SOS emergency phone booth.
The highly qualified IITian with software focus on transportation industry was
unconvinced by my plea that many SOS boxes in emergencies erected on highways
to help hapless victims - need not be only truck drivers, but anyone like you and I -
are just empty boxes. There may be nothing inside.
"Are you saying, these companies that have won multi-crore contracts to build,
operate and transfer (BOT) will be stingy enough to save a few thousand rupees by
bluffing the general public and putting up empty SOS (Save Our Soul) boxes on
highways?" thus went the Pune-based friend and now co-ordinating KRK
Foundation's western region activities.
Once again, I requested him: What's your problem? Why can't you just get out of
the car and check out. Proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Reluctantly, Ulhas stepped out on the Poona-Solapur Expressway and bingo! - this
SOS box turned out to be an empty one. Nothing inside. He was aghast.
3. "Hey, what the hell is this? Nothing inside!" he shouted while our driver Nitin and I
laughed out loud from inside the Innova, we were riding on a roadtrip from
Nagpur to Pune covering a distance of 700 km via Latur over 3 days.
His ire and outburst did not surprise me. I am used to such displays of indifference
by fellow Indians. Road safety? Ha ha!
"Tata company? Such lapses?" - once again this Pune intellectual honcho
screamed. Almost.
"How did you guess this is one is empty," a curious Ulhas demanded.
There are no answers. But this is not the first time, I had halted on highways and
checked out across India over the past five years - since 2010- during my sojourn
in trucks on Indian highways - such supposed to be emergency boxes erected on
highways to assist the aam janta plying these expressways/tollways. No, I do not
halt every single such Emergency Assistance boxes, but randomly step out to pick
up phones and check whether such phones really exist and if so, do they actually
work and if so, does someone at the other end respond quickly.
"Don't National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) giving out such contracts
conduct period checks?" asked my fellow traveller. They do. Am sure they also
come across such blunders. Before one jumps to conclusions, let it be said that
concessionaires do not check the operability of these emergency kits on a regular
basis. That's the crux.
4. Once on such a mission, plying on the National Highway 44 (Hyderabad to
Bangaluru) in 2011 I got out and found the box working fine and the response at
the control room was quick. The operator, quickly alerted the emergency team on
wheels which reached me in double quick time. It was much before sunrise and it
was still dark.When they understood my motive in calling, they were perplexed. I
was taken a tour of their control room facilities and treated to a hot cuppa.
Returning to the 'Ulhas' episode, we decided to confront the plaza manager of
Pune-Solapur Expressway and drove to his office. The man in charge, joined
hardly a week before, called in the systems and maintenance officer to check the
veracity of our complaint.
Yes, they knew the SOS box pointed out by Ulhas indeed was empty due to theft
by some unknown elements and such non-functional emergency boxes do exist
across tollways due to a variety of variety of reasons. We were promised that this
would be set right as early as possible.
"Did you check out the other ones before you hit this one?" asked the
maintenance official politely. Yes, we did and shared that they were functional. He
flashed a 2000 watt smile, convinced that he was doing his duty.
***
5.
6. A fortnight later, I was returning from Hubli to Pune to catch my flight back home
to Delhi on a rainy morning. This time, it was Kubera, my Kannida driver, who was
chosen for this task. This stretch of Naitonal Highway No.4 was manned by equally
reputed Ashoka group.
We halted, Kubera stepped out and opened the yelllow SOS box mounted on a
pole on the roadside.
He did find a couple of coloured buttons wiht instructions written on how to use
it. When he tried calling, there was no response. I was watching from a distance.
"Maybe, I am hard on hearing. Possibly someone is talking, but I can't hear. Sir,
why don't you come and try?" Kubera requested.
I walked up to the SOS box. Pressed the relevant key for control room.
For a few seconds, the buzz went on and on. Then it switched to a pre-recorded
voice message. I disconnected and tried again.
None picked up the phone at the Control Room of Ashoka, the concessionaire.
Next, I tried the Emergency Ambulance button. No response again.
7. This kind of experience is nothing new. Am sure there are hundreds of such
Expressway SOS Emergency phones are just empty boxes or they are not being
attended to. But who is going to monitor and ensure they are attended to? The
government? NHAI? They have to, but will they? I doubt.
I was actually not in any emergency seeking their assistance either on the Pune
Solapur Expressway, managed by the Tata group or on the National highway 4,
manned by Ashoka.
What if, I was really needing quick assistance and this was the status of such
emergency boxes? I leave it there.
Road safety is attracting a lot of attention of late with the new amendment bill in
the offing. Let's move beyond just legislating.
What India needs - on any sphere - is actionable plan. Not empty postings on
Facebook or any social media but a hardcore focused and dedicated approach to
ensure that lives are indeed precious - drivers and passengers - and such valuable
resources are well taken care of.
Further down on the same highway towards Pune, Kubera asked: "Sir, there is
another box. Can we try?"
I smiled and requested him not to halt and check. What if..... you know the rest!
8. A version of this article appeared in Logistics Times, October 2014 edition
The writer is the author of 10,000 KM on Indian Highways, Naked Banana! and An Affair
With Indian Highways. He is also the Founder Chairperson of KRK Foundation, a registered
Trust focused on improving the working and living conditions of truck drivers and their
families living in remote villages of India. He is reachable at ramesh@krkfoundation.org
