Digging trenches for laying cables and water pipes may be a common practice on Kerala roads but breaking them open just before monsoon starts may be risky, especially along the busy National Highways (NH).
Despite repeated calls from the public to complete the works before the fall of monsoon, trenches are being dug along NH 17 at West Hill Chungam even now, raising serious safety concerns to vehicles and pedestrians.
Though the trenches had been filled after laying the cables on some stretches, they are found to have caved in at several points forming deep puddles and making the entire wayside soggy.
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“This is a serious risk for the parking and moving vehicles,” says M.P. Kesavan Nambisan, secretary of the West Hill Chungam Residents’ Association. The authorities should not have allowed the works to be carried out with the monsoon fast approaching, he says.
The area witnessed the same problem last year as well, say the residents.
The picture of a huge truck getting caught in the swamp after its wheels fell into a trench that was freshly covered to conceal cables near the Military Barracks at West Hill is still fresh in their memory.
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Such accidents occur because the trenches are filled in a shoddy way, and a rain is enough to wash away the soil-filling. According to Mr. Nambisan, such instances can be avoided if the authorities can schedule the cable-laying works for summer months so that the soil could get set and hardened by the arrival of the rainy season.
The National Highways Authority of India sources say the cable-laying works for Defence Department were being undertaken by Larsen and Toubro (L&T). A major part of it has been completed, they add.
“We are monitoring its progress and if there is any shortfall that risks public safety, we will look into it,” says E.K. Hydaru, Executive Engineer of the National Highway, Kozhikode.