New Delhi,  The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways have sought suggestions from authorities concerned to frame guidelines to tackle the problem of stray cattle and other animals trespassing National Highways.

The Ministry, in this regard, addressed a letter to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDC) and other concerned authorities last week.

It referred to the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture recommendations in this respect.

"Urgent steps may be taken in coordination with concerned local authorities to tackle the problem of stray cattle and other animals trespassing National Highways posing tremendous security risk to the passengers, especially women, seniors and children, besides causing hindrance on the smooth flow of traffic on NHs. Barriers may be erected to prevent stray cattle and other animals from coming onto NHs in stretches where this problem is faced frequently. Other possible solutions may be looked into to minimize such incidents across the entire NH network in the country so as to make NH travel safer and free-flowing for all passengers," the standing committee in its recent report had recommended.

"In this context, it is requested to kindly provide comments/suggestions to frame guidelines in the matter," said the letter issued by the Ministry to the concerned authorities.

The Committee in its report (No. 317) also noted the various measures taken by the Ministry to bolster road safety on national highways across the country. "A huge number of road accident deaths and the resultant negative effect of the same on the economic growth potential of the country is immense. Keeping this in mind, a lot more still needs to be done in order to minimize the number of road accidents and deaths happening in the country. The Committee feels that besides high-quality maintenance of National Highways and implementation of safety measures therein, having well-trained and educated drivers on our NHs holds the key to improving the driving habits of the average Indian driver and making them more aware of traffic rules and the need for adhering to them," said the report.