Residents associations and NGOs are on the warpath citing how motorists have to pay a hefty toll although the stretch is ill-lit, dotted by unscientifically located U-turns, bus stops unkempt medians and shoddily maintained service streets.
The two NHAI officials and those entrusted with the maintenance of this stretch confided that the agency’s headquarters in New Delhi has been turning a blind eye towards suggestions sent to declog existing drains, construct drains alongside service streets and also to pay for them. “Inadequate drains and dumping of garbage into open drains have been a perennial problem, ever since the NH Bypass was commissioned over 20 decades back. Another proposal to build adequate refuge lanes for automobiles at U-turns also is hanging fire, since funds have never been sanctioned,” they said.
Yet another long-pending proposal is to increase the diameter of tarred space on service streets from 5 to 7 meters, to enable safe movement of vehicles at either direction. This would function as a check on other vehicles on the corridor and parking of goods carriers.
The NHAI’s reluctance to provide funds to build drains and also to raise the tarred area of service streets continues to be causing waterlogging, creating potholes and washing off earthen road shoulders. “The headquarters hasn’t responded though half a dozen quotes, revived frequently, were sent into it,” informed sources said.
Photo credit: thehindu.com
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