1 hour ago
5
ARTICLE AD BOX
3 min readNew DelhiJun 24, 2026 10:35 PM IST
A view of the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Western Express Highway amid continuous rainfall, in Mumbai on Wednesday. (ANI Photo)
Following the Supreme Court order on unauthorised parking on the highways, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has identified 595 critical locations across the highways in all states, which have become an usual place for vehicle parking on the side of main carriageway.
Officials said that 20 such locations have been identified in each state along with longitude and latitude details as part of the initiative. These are also the locations where accidents frequently occur.
“This is the first phase of identification of unauthorised parkings. After freeing these hotspots, the other stretches will also be identified. We have sought help from the state governments and district administration to clear illegal parking on highways,” said an NHAI official.
For instance, in Delhi-NCR, these unauthorised parking areas have been identified on Meerut-Bulandshahr section of NH-334, Urban Extension Road (UER-II) in North west Delhi, Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Delhi-Vadodara expressway, NH-248A in Gurgaon, Delhi-Agra section of National highway-2 in Palwal etc.
The parking of vehicles on highways has been one of the key regions for the accidents, as drivers fail to notice the parked vehicles at night or misjudge whether they are stationary or moving. This also happens due to the unauthorised operation of roadside dhabas, where truck drivers and helpers usually cross the railing to take meals after parking their vehicles on the road.
In its order on April 13, the court clearly said that no heavy or commercial vehicle shall park or stop on any National Highway carriageway or paved shoulder except at a designated bay, lay-bye, or Wayside Amenity. The court said the authorities should use Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) to track such vehicles, send alerts to police with GPS-timestamped photographic evidence and integrate it with e-Challan.
While the installation of ATMS on all highways will take time, the NHAI official said enhanced highway patrolling, integration of ATMS alerts (wherever available) with police and proactive maintenance of safety infrastructure are being prioritized.
Story continues below this ad
The Supreme Court’s order came on a suo motu case, where 34 lives were lost in two separate road accidents in November 2025. These accidents took place in Rajasthan’s Phalodi district and Telangana’s Rangareddy district.
Apart from unauthorised parking, the court also prohibited the construction and operation of any new dhaba, eatery, or commercial structure within the Right of Way (ROW) of any National Highway. The court has ordered that District Magistrates shall enforce the demolition of all new and existing unauthorised structures.
English (US) ·