Commuting is becoming a nightmare along most roads in the city since potholes have developed in less than a fortnight since the monsoons began.
This has been attributed to the ad hoc measures adopted by civic agencies in repairing and resurfacing roads. Even roads repaired recently are full of potholes because of the inferior quality of work, insufficient slant towards the drains and the inadequate number of outlets leading to the drains through which the water can seep away.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the PWD and the Corporation of Cochin did not utilise the six months from October to March when it did not rain even once, to execute repair and preventive-maintenance works on vulnerable portions of roads and bridges where potholes develop every monsoon.
This has resulted in the Edapally-Vytilla NH bypass being dotted with gaping potholes. They are very frequent near the Vytilla bridge, at the Palarivattom bypass junction and a few other weak portions which give away during the rains each year.
The NHAI did not carry out a fool-proof road-reinforcement work prior to the monsoons, despite motorists meeting with fatal accidents each year after falling into the potholes. This apart, the agency began resurfacing the road just a week before the monsoons, because of delay in getting sanction from its head office.
Sources said that the delay has also held up repair work on the service roads and the proposed widening of narrow free-left turns at Palarivattom and Edapally. The uneven road surface along the Vytilla-Aroor stretch of the NH where the agency's four-laning work is encountering delays, has made matters worse for road users.
The much-delayed resurfacing of the Corporation of Cochin-owned SA Road too had to be stopped mid-way because the work began just before the monsoon. The condition of the Chitoor Road, the South overbridge and the access roads to the Pullepady overbridge, all maintained by the agency, too are getting worse by the day.
The corporation was unable to resurface the Banerjee Road because the KSEB is yet to complete the work to lay underground cables, for which the deadline expired in November last.
