The Supreme Court of India has directed the National Highways Authority of India to examine the feasibility of installing closed-circuit television cameras at toll plazas across national highways, marking a significant judicial intervention into ongoing road safety concerns that have contributed to tens of thousands of fatalities on India’s road network each year.
The directive emerged during proceedings in a suo motu case initiated by the court following a road accident in Phalodi, Rajasthan, where a tempo traveller collided with a stationary trailer truck. The court’s decision to take cognisance of the incident on its own motion underscored growing judicial concern over the frequency and preventability of crashes on high-speed corridors connecting India’s major cities and towns.
A bench comprising justices of the Supreme Court posed the question directly to NHAI officials during the hearing, asking why surveillance infrastructure comparable to what exists in other public infrastructure settings should not be extended to toll collection points. The court’s inquiry reflected a broader pattern of judicial engagement with highway safety deficiencies that have drawn persistent criticism from road safety experts and accident victim advocates.
What the Court Observed
According to details from the hearing, the bench noted that continuous video surveillance at toll plazas could serve multiple enforcement and evidence-gathering functions. Such systems would allow authorities to monitor compliance with traffic regulations, identify vehicles operating in violation of safety standards, and compile visual records that could prove invaluable in reconstructing the circumstances of accidents when they occur.
The court further observed that CCTV infrastructure could extend beyond traffic monitoring to address what it described as a continuing hazard on national highways: encroachment activity along highway margins, service lanes, and adjacent land. Structures, informal markets, and unauthorized settlements have proliferated along highway corridors in many states, frequently without effective intervention from either NHAI or state government agencies responsible for land use regulation.
The bench directed NHAI to submit a formal response detailing its position on installing surveillance equipment at toll collection points and outlining concrete measures being undertaken to address encroachment problems that the court characterized as both persistent and dangerous.
The Phalodi Accident and Its Aftermath
The suo motu proceedings trace their origin to a collision that occurred in November 2025 in Phalodi, a town in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan. A tempo traveller, a small commercial passenger vehicle commonly used for inter-city transport, struck a stationary trailer truck that had been stopped on the highway carriageway. The accident drew attention to the recurring pattern of collisions between moving vehicles and stationary or slow-moving obstacles on India’s national highway network.
Road safety advocates have long pointed to such scenarios as emblematic of systemic failures in highway design, enforcement, and infrastructure maintenance. Vehicles breaking down or stopping on active carriageways, often due to mechanical failures or the absence of adequate emergency stopping facilities, create lethal hazards for following traffic, particularly during night hours when visibility is reduced and driver reaction times lengthen.
The Supreme Court’s decision to initiate proceedings without waiting for a formal petition reflected the court’s assessment that the accident exemplified broader deficiencies warranting judicial attention rather than merely representing an isolated incident requiring individual remedy.
The Encroachment Crisis on National Highways
The court’s observations on highway encroachments brought renewed focus to a problem that has defied resolution despite years of official acknowledgment. NHAI and state public works departments have periodically conducted demolition drives to remove unauthorized structures from highway reservations, but advocates say these efforts have proven insufficient to reverse the steady expansion of informal development along major road corridors.
Encroachments take multiple forms across different highway segments. In peri-urban areas, commercial establishments frequently extend structures into highway service roads, creating conflict between high-speed through traffic and slower-moving local vehicles and pedestrians. In rural stretches, agricultural activities and residential structures sometimes occupy land within the officially designated right of way, exposing communities to the dangers of proximity to high-speed traffic.
Road safety researchers have documented correlations between encroachment density and accident rates on specific highway segments. Pedestrians crossing or walking along highways bordered by encroachment tend to enter the carriageway at points lacking proper crossing infrastructure, while vehicles entering from informal access points created by encroaching structures create conflict with through traffic.
State governments control much of the land adjacent to national highways, and the jurisdictional boundaries between central NHAI authority and state administrative responsibility create coordination challenges that have complicated enforcement efforts.
Why the Surveillance Proposal Matters
The court’s push for CCTV coverage at toll plazas arrives against a backdrop of alarming road safety statistics that have drawn repeated attention from both judicial and legislative bodies. India has consistently recorded more than 170,000 road fatalities annually in recent years, according to data published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, placing the country among the nations with the highest road death tolls globally.
Advocates for enhanced road safety measures have argued that improved surveillance and evidence-gathering infrastructure could contribute to deterrence as well as accountability. When drivers and operators know that vehicle movements are being recorded at fixed points, compliance with traffic regulations may improve. When accidents do occur, video records can assist investigators in determining causation and assigning responsibility, potentially strengthening the evidentiary basis for enforcement actions.
The practical implementation of surveillance at toll plazas would require NHAI to address several logistical and financial considerations. Camera installation across the hundreds of toll collection points operating on India’s national highway network would involve substantial capital expenditure. Data storage requirements for continuous video recording would demand significant infrastructure investment, with retention policies determining how long footage would be maintained before deletion.
Questions of data access and sharing would also require resolution. If toll plaza footage is to serve investigative purposes, protocols would need to be established governing how state police forces and other enforcement agencies could obtain relevant recordings following accidents. Privacy considerations, while less prominent in the context of public highway monitoring than in some other surveillance contexts, would nonetheless merit examination to ensure that camera deployment complies with applicable legal standards.
What Comes Next
The Supreme Court has scheduled the matter for further proceedings, during which NHAI will be expected to present its formal response to the court’s queries. Officials from the highways authority may be required to appear before the bench to explain current practices and outline any plans under consideration for enhanced monitoring infrastructure.
The court’s approach suggests it views the issues before it as systemic rather than confined to the specific circumstances of the Phalodi accident. While the November 2025 collision provided the proximate trigger for judicial intervention, the court’s framing of its concerns — encompassing both surveillance gaps and encroachment hazards — indicates an intent to examine underlying conditions contributing to highway safety deficiencies.
State governments with jurisdiction over land adjacent to national highways will likely face renewed scrutiny as part of the proceedings, given the court’s explicit reference to the encroachment problem. Coordination between central and state authorities has historically been a weak point in highway management, and the court’s engagement may prompt attempts to clarify responsibilities and establish more effective mechanisms for enforcement.
Road safety advocates have welcomed the court’s intervention, arguing that judicial attention can accelerate changes that have stalled under routine administrative processes. The Supreme Court’s capacity to issue binding directives that state agencies are obligated to address provides a lever for accountability that advocates have pressed into service before on related matters involving highway infrastructure and traffic safety.
The case will be closely watched for any interim orders the court may issue regarding either surveillance installation or encroachment remediation while the substantive proceedings continue. Such orders could establish immediate obligations for NHAI and state authorities pending final resolution of the matters before the court.
The Road Safety Context
India’s road network, among the world’s largest, carries an extraordinary volume of traffic ranging from high-speed passenger vehicles on expressways to slow-moving agricultural equipment on rural highways. The diversity of users and the varying conditions of infrastructure across different states and regions create a complex environment for safety regulation.
National highways, while representing a relatively small fraction of India’s total road length, account for a disproportionate share of fatal accidents due to the high speeds involved and the extended distances over which vehicles travel without interruption. The toll plaza system, which charges fees for vehicle passage on national highways, already creates natural chokepoints where traffic regularly slows or stops, potentially making such locations well-suited for surveillance infrastructure deployment.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has pursued various initiatives in recent years aimed at reducing road fatalities, including engineering improvements to high-accident corridors, enhanced driver training requirements, and stricter enforcement of vehicle fitness standards. The Supreme Court’s engagement adds a judicial dimension to these efforts, potentially creating additional pressure for implementation of measures that have been discussed but not yet implemented.
The outcome of the current proceedings will determine whether India’s toll plazas become sites of continuous video monitoring, and whether the court succeeds in prodding authorities toward more effective action on the encroachment problem that has resisted resolution despite years of official acknowledgment.
Sources
Hindustan Times: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/why-not-have-cctvs-on-toll-plazas-sc-asks-nhai-flags-highway-encroachments-101788438547817.html
Source: Hindustan Times – India News
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Story synopsis gathered from: Hindustan Times – India News — source
