Corporation
yet to widen or resurface side roads
The
city is yet to get a traffic regulation and diversion plan even as metro
contractors are all set to barricade the centre of S.A. Road from month-end to
begin piling for the metro rail project.
Side
roads have also not been widened or resurfaced by the Kochi Corporation. Mayor
Tony Chammany said metro stakeholders had not informed the civic body of plans
to commence civil works along S.A. Road and the need to divert light vehicles
through side roads.
Kochi
Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) has said a meeting of traffic police and other
stakeholders will be convened soon to chalk out a diversion plan. Sources
associated with the metro said the corporation was duty-bound to repair its
roads and remove bottlenecks irrespective of metro rail works. “The agency should
have repaired damaged roads by now since rains stopped in November. S.A. Road
is extremely congested even without metro work and side roads should have been
widened years ago,” sources said.
They
said vehicles moving from South bridge towards Vyttila could ideally be
diverted through Jawahar Nagar and Subhash Bose Road that run parallel to S.A.
Road. For this, portions of S.T.P. Road (that links Elamkulam on S.A. Road with
Jawahar Nagar), Ambelipadam Road and Paradise Road (that link Vyttila Janatha with
Subhash Bose Road) have to be widened and potholes repaired.
Similarly,
vehicles moving in the opposite direction could be diverted through Chilavanoor
Road and Ponneth Temple Road, which are in reasonably good condition, and also
through Girinagar. There is also a suggestion that narrower side roads have
one-way traffic.
The
GCDA has promised completing widening and tarring of Chilavanoor Bund Road
(that would run parallel to S.A. Road) by year end, following which a good
share of vehicles in either direction may be diverted through it.
Elamkulam
ward councillor Sojan Antony said tarring work on S.T.P. Road would commence
from January 20. “There is a long-pending proposal to acquire 1.5 metres from
either side of the road to widen bottle-necked portions. Widening can commence
only after a State government notification is issued,” he said. South
overbridge would witness utter chaos unless it is widened alongside metro
works, he added.
Development
of Paradise Road into a 10-metre-wide road is going on at a snail’s pace,
despite serpentine traffic snarls at Vyttila. “Payment of compensation has been
held up because of inadequate funds. Metro agencies could help in whatever way
possible to speed up widening works,” said Ponnurunni ward councillor Soumya N.
S.
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