Slush all the way on 120 Feet Road

October 10, 2017 08:21 am | Updated 08:22 am IST - MADURAI

Deep craters endanger lives of motorists on the 120 Feet Road linking Surveyor Colony with Maattuthavani Integrated Bus Stand in Madurai.

Deep craters endanger lives of motorists on the 120 Feet Road linking Surveyor Colony with Maattuthavani Integrated Bus Stand in Madurai.

The condition of roads has turned worse in the last few days in the wake of intermittent rain. Deep potholes and large craters are the immediate fallout. They prevent free flow of vehicles.

The 120 Feet Road near Mattuthavani Integrated Bus Stand, Gokhale Road in Chokikulam and 80 Feet Road in K.K. Nagar, to name a few, have suffered extensive damage. Pedestrians are forced to hop, jump, leap and indulge in innumerable acrobatics to cross these roads safely. Two-wheeler riders have to do a lot of balancing to negotiate these stretches.

Drivers of cars, vans, buses and lorries have to suddenly reduce the speed to overcome different kinds of jerks to prevent damage to their backbone and vehicles. Water lorries have a unique problem. They splash water on all those who follow them closely.

Soon after a brief spell of showers, stagnant rainwater covers all potholes, pits and craters, making it difficult for motorists to identify danger zones. Therefore, all vehicles have to move at snail's pace causing, traffic jam. The situation turns worse during peak hours.

The traffic police at the junction of 120 Feet Road and Melur Road have found an ingenious way to tackle the problem. They have put up metal barricades near the damaged stretch to prevent people from jumping lane.

No barricade was put up in the last 10 years at this spot even when the road was good and when there was very little encroachment. It is not a remedy for the malady. The police argue that they have to do it to prevent haphazard movement of vehicles.

A policeman at the outpost recalled that a car had slipped into the ditch recently due to absence of parapet. If the road is widened, at least vehicles going towards the Ring Road and Melur Road can take a free left turn and ensure free movement of other vehicles to some extent.

Bose, a frequent user of the road, blames it on the corporation. The corporation removed even minor encroachments on Alagarkoil Road last month but it had not touched enormous encroachments on the nearby 120 Feet Road even once during the last several years, he said.

When this was brought to the attention of Corporation Commissioner S. Aneesh Sekhar, he admitted that something needed to be done immediately to improve the condition of this road. He pointed out that though the road is called 120 Feet Road it is not 120 feet wide from the beginning to the end. Motorists want concerted efforts to restore actual width of the road and its relaying so that their movement can be smooth and free from accidents.

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