The roller crash barriers that were installed on Yercaud ghat road in Salem district on Friday.
| Photo Credit: E. LAKSHMI NARAYANAN
The installation of roller crash barriers on Yercaud ghat roads is going on in full swing, and new accident-prone places are identified to install the barriers.
Yercaud, popularly known as Poor People’s Ooty, is in the Shervaroyan Hills in the Eastern Ghats. It is at an altitude of 1,515 metres (4,969 feet) above the mean sea level. The road has 20 hairpin bends. During weekends and holidays, thousands of people throng this hill station in vehicles. But following frequent accidents, the Highways Department decided to install roller crash barriers on the Salem-Yercaud ghat road, Kuppanur-Yercaud ghat road, and Pelathur-Kuppanur ghat road to prevent accidents. The work for installing these barriers started at the end of 2024, and last year they were installed at a cost of ₹10 crore.
As more places in these ghat roads were accident-prone, the Highways Department this year too started to identify places for the installation of roller crash barriers, and the work for the installation of barriers is going on in full swing in the ghat roads.
Officials attached to the State Highways Department said that the barriers will reduce the speed of the vehicles while they crash over them and pull back the vehicles to the road again and prevent the vehicles from falling into the gorge during accidents and also prevent deaths.
As of now, in more than 20 places, these barriers were installed, and a few more places were identified. The installation works will be completed in the remaining places before the Yercaud summer festival, officials added.
Published – January 23, 2026 08:23 pm IST
