Faced with mounting traffic snarls and accidents due to potholed and slushy roads at Vyttila Junction, the traffic police have sought the intervention of District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla to direct the Public Works Department (NH Wing) to restore roads on a war footing.
“We are fed up with the PWD since it is not repairing the severely-potholed junction on the NH Bypass and service roads, despite repeated reminders. The department and the contractor engaged in the flyover construction are not taking steps to alleviate the difficulties facing road users. We had to approach the Collector since the PWD is taking its own sweet time to do repair work,” said a senior traffic police officer.
Officials of the department are waiting for “rain to subside” for repair work, and it is next to impossible during the monsoon, as everyone knows. “It [PWD] must relay the damaged portions of the road by using concrete paver blocks, which can be paved even during rain and can resist flooding. The back-breaking potholes are slowing down the movement of vehicles and posing threat to pedestrians and two-wheeler riders. Vehicles are also suffering damage after falling into deep potholes,” he said.
Incidentally, over a dozen vehicles were trapped in the slushy service road on Thursday.
The police official further blamed the PWD for not raising service roads on the Aroor side to the level of the NH Bypass and hewing out slip roads on the Palarivattom side to divert vehicles, before barricading the junction for flyover work in December 2017.
Official’s response
Reacting to the maddening snarls at the biggest junction in the State, Principal Secretary of PWD (NH wing) Kamala Vardhana Rao said potholes were being attended to using Granular Sub-Base (GSB) and Wet Mix Macadam (WMM). “Tarring work cannot be done during heavy rain, and we are on constant alert,” he added.
A PWD official associated with the flyover work too echoed the views. He admitted that modern methods like cold-mix bitumen should have been used to fill small potholes as soon as they developed when rain began. The technique cannot be adopted now since potholes are spread over a vast area.
“We are awaiting a special sanction from the PWD to pave the damaged portions of the NH Bypass and service roads with concrete blocks. Till then, measures can only be taken to temporarily restore potholes,” he said.
Meanwhile, sources in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which owns the NH Bypass and service roads, said the PWD was responsible for the upkeep of the junction and service roads in the vicinity, since land was handed over to it for the flyover work. It is also the PWD’s responsibility to ensure smooth and safe movement of motorists and pedestrians, they added.
