4-lanes, 2-lanes become single-lanes in City

Though many roads in the City have been concretised and re-asphalted to help free flow of traffic, a few incomplete stretches or encroached stretches of roads have been posing a great threat to the vehicle users as well as pedestrians.

One such stretch is at Padavinangady - Airport road. Though the road to airport (from KPT) is four-laned and concreted upto close to Maravoor bridge, a 300-metre stretch from In-Land highrise under construction to Padavinangady, has been turned into a single-lane due to buildings on one side.

This already narrow-stretch has also been blocked/ encroached upon by someone constructing a building. The construction materials have been dumped on the road posing a threat to vehicle users as many are caught unawares till they reach the spot.

“This is a situation waiting for an accident to happen,” said a resident and added that it is particularly dangerous at night as there are no warning signs or red lights. “The taxis or private vehicles coming from Kerala to airport are most vulnerable to accidents,” he points out.

This is not the only danger spot in the City. There are a couple of such spots including the one on Kadri - Bendoor road (soon after the Shivbagh Cross Road). A stretch on Kadri Hills - Bejai (near Bejai Church) junction too is posing a similar threat.

According to a resident, who did not wish to be quoted, the Japanese industry has a concept of “Just-in-Time,” that is meant for reducing inventory costs and bring in the raw material when it is needed to sustain unbroken production. “Construction people can adopt this method to have only immediately storable and needed items like sand, steel, cement and laterite stones,” he said and added that the authorities concerned should heavily fine such encroachments.

Will the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC), which has been taking steps to clear encroachments and raiding shops without licenses, do the needful and save precious lives? asks another road-user, who narrowly missed an accident in the stretch.