Recently, a huge electric pole located on the middle of New Jail Road, bang opposite the Madurai Central Prison, was hit by an unidentified vehicle in the dead of the night. The driver of the purported four-wheeler managed to escape with his vehicle before the accident could be noticed by even the personnel posted outside the jail.
In the impact of the accident, the tall electric pole got mangled and twisted. Power supply was cut to an industrial unit. Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation officials and workers had to slog for more than five hours to replace the mangled electric pole.
The main cause of the accident was the awkward location of a series of about 10 electric poles on the middle of New Jail Road, one of the main arteries that connects western parts of the city and suburbs with the eastern and northern parts of Madurai. It is a road that is busy throughout the day and night.
After removal of encroachments along the Arasaradi Railway Ground a few years back, the road was widened. As a result, the poles that were on the margin of the road came to the middle for some 250 metres from Grummerpuram to Travellers Bungalow Road-New Jail Road junction.
A few years back, this portion of the widened stretch was given road marking that led to the confusion of road users. While the road marking divided the road into two having the series of HT electric poles as a median, still many vehicles used the old road for two-way traffic.
Juggling files
With no structure to guard the leaning poles, they pose danger to road users. This becomes worse at night when people not familiar with this stretch of road fail to take notice of the poles and hit them. “In the last six months alone, vehicles had hit the electric poles on two occasions,” said a TANGEDCO source. Files have been juggling between Madurai Corporation and TANGEDCO for at least five years now with regard to shifting of the electric poles.
TANGEDCO has sought the Corporation to pay up for the shifting charges. But not much has happened so far. “Even construction of a median along the alignment of the series of poles could provide some sort of safety and prevent vehicles from hitting the poles. But even that has not been happening,” a road user said. If the authorities act fast, this danger zone could be made a smooth two-way stretch.
