JOIN USMCC mantra: Dig up good roads to create 'dirt tracks'
The road which was quite spacious is now being narrowed by putting up the median. The city of Mysore has quite a number of spacious roads thanks to the vision of rulers. They not only planted plants on both sides of these roads but also ensured that it was wide for easy movement of traffic.
However, the beauty of all these roads had been spoiled by the MCC authorities by putting up the median irrespective of the fact whether it was required or not. The latest in the list of casualty is the Kantharaj Urs Road in Saraswathipuram area. This road has been quite spacious and there was no complaint whatsoever about traffic congestion from the general public.
In fact, the vehicle riders are now experiencing hardship because of the new facility by the corporation authorities. The MCC has taken up the work of putting up the median from K G Koppal up to Fire Brigade Office.
It is not known whether the work has been taken up out of ` 100 crore special grant given by the chief minister or from the funds available under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (jnNURM) scheme.
All these days the vehicles were moving without any chaos. But now they will face problems once the median work is completed. The riders enter from wrong side if space is not given for left or right turn. The movement of vehicle will become further slow due to parking of vehicles on both the directions as well as stoppage of city buses.
The space between footpath and road is quite spacious and that portion is being used as parking of vehicles. As a result, scores of two-wheelers and four-wheelers are parked right on the road.
Besides, there are good number of trees that are providing shade to people. It is not known whether the MCC has taken up the median work to cut trees citing space crunch. The median put on several other roads has not given desired results except making them narrow and scope for traffic offense like entering from wrong side.
An engineer told Deccan Herald that the purpose of putting the median is to ensure free flow of vehicles in big cities where traffic is busy throughout the city. But it is certainly not required in the area like Saraswathipuram which is not busy all the time.
The median has more disadvantages than advantages as people have to go up the place where right or left turn is given. Basically, the median is best suited for state and highways to ensure lane discipline and overtaking the opposite vehicles in dangerous way.
None of the things are seen in the Saraswathipuram area. It is quite surprising why did the MCC take up such works that causes inconvenience to general public than benefiting them. This has given a feeling whether the corporation is taking up these works only to spend funds released by the government.