A day after the High Court pulled up authorities for the pitiable state of city roads that claimed a life at Palarivattom, the city police have said that they had, a few months ago, given the agencies concerned a list of 45 roads in the city and its immediate suburbs that were in bad shape and in need of urgent repair works.
Among the roads listed included 16 roads maintained by the National Highways Authority of India, 13 held by the Public Works Department, and 10 belonging to the Kochi Corporation. Two roads maintained by the Greater Cochin Development Authority and Kochi Refineries Limited and one road each of Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala Ltd. and Goshree Islands Development Authority also figured on the list.
The list, drawn up by the Traffic West and East divisions of the city police following a week-long field survey complete with photographs had been submitted to the district administration and other agencies concerned.
“We drew up the list since the bad roads were threatening public safety. It was given to all the agencies concerned with a clear message that they will have to face legal action unless they take necessary corrective measures. Since then the condition of roads has improved somewhat but not up to the satisfactory level,” said Inspector General of Police and District Police Chief (Kochi city) Vijay Sakhare.
Among the roads included in the list were Kaloor-Palarivattom road, Kaloor-Kathrikadavu road, Palarivattom Junction and Palarivattom bypass junction, Kakkanad-Palarivattom road, Edappally-Cheranalloor, Vytilla-Kundannoor, Vytilla-Ponnurunni, Kathrikadavu-Ponnurunni, Kaloor-Pottakkuzhi, Aroor-Vyttila, Maradu-Kundannoor, Maradu-Pettah, Seaport-Airport, Karingachira-Thiruvankulam, Mini Bypass, Pandit Karuppan, Ernakulam-Vypeen, Thevara-Venduruthy, Valanjambalam-Ravipuram, GCDA-Gandhi Nagar, and Old Thevara-Foreshore road. The report also described the exact points of potholes on each road. For instance, it cited Thammanam Junction, areas near Kathrikadavu, Vyloppilli Lane and Thammanam-Vyttila road as the potholed stretches along the Karanakkodam-Kathrikadavu-Thammanam road. Similarly, five potholed-points at Vazhakkala, Kunnumpuram, Padivattom, Padamughal, Alinchuvadu, and Olimughal were listed along the Kakkanad-Palarivattom road.
Traffic police personnel involved in drawing up the list said that though none of the roads mentioned were completely left unattended since then, the maintenance was largely restricted to patch works.
“Only the Pandit Karuppan Road has been fully re-surfaced while work along S.A. Road is under way. Mostly, patch works were done on rest of the roads and some of them have already fallen into disrepair since then,” a senior traffic police official said.
