Janata Road, just 400 metres from the Vytilla Junction, has a strange problem.
The road is in fairly good condition and the entry to the road leading to the main Vytilla-Kadavanthra Road was widened some years ago.
But motorists are yet to benefit from it, thanks to a post and a culvert right on the middle of the entry to the road.
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Besides there is also a cluster of posts with a tangle of wires hanging like ugly cobwebs a little apart.
The post and the culvert used to border the entry of the road till the time it was widened.
While the expansion did widen the entry, the post and the culvert remain where they were, virtually functioning as a divider.
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Traffic blocks
Francis, who has been running a shop right at the entry of the road for more than a decade, said that the KSEB post and the culvert remain the biggest obstacles, causing traffic blocks during peak hours in the morning and evening.
He claims that he had warned the contract workers who had come to erect the post to locate it farther away so that it didn’t become an obstacle in the future. But they gave scant regard to his words.
“Posts, which were awkwardly placed like this one on two other roads in the neighbourhood, were removed when the roads were widened. The widened entry to this road now has no meaning because of the continuance of this post,” Francis rued.
Increasingly busy road
Vinu, an autorickshaw driver, has a similar opinion.
“This road is getting increasingly busy as many motorists impatient with the block at the traffic signal at Vytilla Junction take this deviation as it takes them to the Thykoodam underpass on the National Highway,” he said. Shamsudeen, another autorickshaw driver, assumes there is a reason behind the authorities not shifting the posts. “The stone foundation holding the road above the drainage is in a bad state and may collapse if more pressure is exerted on the road.
If the posts and the culvert are removed heavy vehicles will start using the road and that’s perhaps the reason why authorities have left it like that,” he said.
Pushpan, a differently-abled lottery ticket vendor, located a few metres away from the entry to the road, said that traffic blocks are often created as there is not enough space for the vehicles coming from the direction of Kadavanthra and cutting in to the road and those vehicles waiting to enter the main road from the Janata Road.
“Vehicles jostle for space and sometimes some vehicles have to be put on reverse gear to make way for vehicles entering the road,” he said.
Billboards an obstacle
James, whose wife runs a makeshift kiosk a few metres away from the entry to the road, said that the advertisement boards placed on the cluster of posts block the visibility of motorists entering the main road.
“Often they are blind to the vehicles coming at a fair amount of speed after waiting impatiently at the Vytilla signal. Hence, those who are not careful and patient may end up victims of traffic accidents,” he said.
Ratnamma Raju, division councillor, said that the electric post cannot be shifted from its place as of now because then the electric lines will have to be drawn through the premises of an apartment complex in the vicinity.