Paradip: The national highway's junctions in Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts are doubling up as vegetable markets are becoming a major cause for frequent road accidents.

The traffic junctions at Gopa chowk, Silipurgada and Paradipgada have turned into vegetable mandis. As a result, it has become difficult for motorists to negotiate the crowd on the highway.

With the vendors occupying the highway, it has been susceptible to recurring road accidents. The vendor has their market sheds built close to the road, while traders have shifted their business to the highway. The authorities have, however, turned their blind eye to it, said a road safety campaigner, Kamal Lochan Sarangi.

The NH chaos of this form is more or less the same at Haldiagada and Kujang. These places, hit by the NH encroachments, have accounted for nine human casualties since past one month.

As the mandis operate on the highway, it leads to unauthorised parking. With the highway space grabbed by parked vehicle, the speeding vehicles meet with accidents at those specific spots, he said.

Faulty driving, unregulated traffic, straying of cattle into the road, violation of the road-safety norms have contributed to the rise in the mishaps on the highways traversing through both the coastal districts.

More so, the drivers are avoiding the assigned lay-bys while parking their vehicles. The majority of accidents were the result of vehicles hitting the parked ones. Over-speeding and drunken driving are also attributed to the frequent road mishaps.

"Police would launch a drive to do away with highway squatting. The roadside parking of vehicles would also be sternly dealt with," said sub-divisional police officer Rajib Lochan Panda.