With serpentine traffic snarls becoming the norm on arterial roads, the most recent one being an approximately 8-km-long snarl in the Edappally-Vyttila-Thykoodam corridor on NH 66 Bypass on Saturday, the demand is rife that Kochi gets its share of road development projects like the City Road Improvement Project (CRIP) which catalysed the widening of arterial roads in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.
This comes close on the heels of traffic and urban planners, residents’ associations and NGOs demanding proactive measures by the Public Works department, Kochi Corporation, Greater Cochin Development Authority, National Highways Authority of India and enforcement agencies like the police and Motor Vehicles department to initiate steps to widen narrow bellmouths at junctions and clamp down on haphazard parking to ensure smooth movement of vehicles.
Former MP Charles Dias spoke of how Kochi was perennially denied her share of road development projects, thanks to the ‘attitude’ of a section of bureaucrats which acted as a stumbling block. “This has been happening despite Ernakulam district generating maximum revenue in the form of taxes and fees. Moreover, the maximum number of vehicles are registered here. The government must reinvest here in the form of roads and allied infrastructure.”
“The worst part is that civic and other government agencies are not removing permanent and semi-permanent encroachments and obstructive parking on the notoriously narrow roads in the city. I had made an effort to widen narrow bellmouths of key junctions and clear encroachments over three years ago. Shoddy planning by road-owning agencies and traffic police cabins that block free left turns have resulted in many junctions getting choked with vehicles,” Mr. Dias added.
The government must ready an action plan for Kochi and allocate adequate funds to develop roads, since it often takes hours to traverse short distances, thanks to slow-moving traffic and vehicles jostling for space in narrow junctions, said P.V. Paulson, a native of Angamaly and regional chairman of Region-10 of Lions International. “This is in stark contrast with the traffic situation even in the State Capital. This has been contributing to huge loss of productivity, apart from money wasted on fuel, wear and tear of vehicles. This also ensues in avoidable air and sound pollution.”
The situation can be improved if junctions were widened, and bridges/flyovers built wherever needed like in metro cities elsewhere. In addition, bypasses must be built in congested suburban towns like Angamaly and Muvattupuzha. Their expense can be offset in three to four years, by way of considerable savings in time and fuel, he added.
Urban planners have for long been expressing concern at the city not getting any new road after S.A. Road, Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road, Stadium Link Road and Subhash Bose Road were constructed two decades ago, even as the number of vehicles more than doubled.
Develop new roads
Citing the need to decongest the city and its immediate suburbs, Mayor M. Anilkumar said the Thammanam-Pullepady Road, Goshree-Mamangalam Road, Chilavannur Bund Road, K.P. Vallon Road and Pandit Karuppan Road ought to be developed, in order to decongest the city. “There is also need to realise (long-overdue) overbridges at Atlantis, Vaduthala and Vathuruthy. Even as efforts are made in this direction, traffic snarls can be lessened if commuters relied on Kochi metro – a reliable and comfortable mode of mass rapid transport. This will at least lessen congestion on roads beneath the metro corridor.”
