In its road-safety framework, the Supreme Court bench also barred heavy and commercial vehicles from stopping on National Highway carriageways (Image generated using Gemini)The Maharashtra government has given a 60-day ultimatum to state urban bodies to demolish and remove all new and existing unlicensed structures and ban construction of any dhaba, eatery, or commercial structures within the Right of Way (ROW) – the total strip of land acquired and reserved by the government – on all National Highways in the state. The reason for the state government to ban unauthorised dhabas and hotels is the Supreme Court’s cognizance of the news reports in April that as many as 34 lives were lost in successive accidents in Rajasthan and Telangana. Observing that the National Highways constitute “approximately 2% of India’s total road length but account for nearly 30% of all road fatalities”, the Supreme Court had directed the road departments of the Centre and States to ensure highways do not become a “corridor of peril due to administrative lethargy or administrative gaps” as it monitored compliance of its April road-safety directions.