'Dust' tracks of namma mysooru

Awareness

When you set out on road, make sure (in case of two-wheelers) you are wearing a helmet fitted with glass covering. If not helmet, a riding glass or goggles will do. Or else, apart from handling the vehicle, you will have to battle dust, that emits like thick clouds on the road. For pedestrians, it is better to make judicious use of their hands to cover nostrils or a use kerchief to avoid inhaling the dust. Or else, it may take a toll on your health causing infection of various types.

Thanks to the roads in the city -- irrespective of major thoroughfares or narrow lanes -- most of them have gone from bad to worse. Plumes of dust  is part and parcel of every road. With the city receiving copious rainfall, the much asphalted roads in the previous months, have worn out with potholes surfacing at places. The number of vehicles that have grown manifold, plying on the roads have aggravated the situation further.
Especially in case of heavy vehicles, it is a challenge to ride behind those huge tyres, as dust hits the rider right in the  face forcing one to suffer from temporarily blurred vision. Similar is the pain of residents and shopkeepers on these roads, who have no option left other than blaming the system, which seems to have turned a blind eye to this hazardous problem.

When City Herald did a recce, Mahatma Gandhi road popular as M G Road stretching from Law Courts Complex to M L Somasundaram Circle Junction and Lalitha Mahal Road stretching from M L Somasundaram Circle to Teresian College junction, Malai Mahadeshwara Road from Shanthaveri Gopalgowda Junction to Teresian College Junction to name a few were found as such ‘dusty’ tracks. So were Thyagaraja road, Ramanuja road, Banumaiah road, Veene Seshanna street, New Kantharaj Urs road, Kuvempunagar double road, Bangalore-Nilgiri road and Mysore- Bangalore road (within the limits of Mysore), Nazarbad main road to name a few. Civic works that were launched under the banner of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) and works under Chief Minister’s Special Grant of Rs 100 crore have also contributed to the crisis. A stretch of road from  Siddappa Circle (near JSS Hospital) to Dewan Poornaiah Convention Hall stands as the best example. This particular stretch that was already posing a challenge to even tread upon what with its potholes, turned into a mess of sorts after the works related to replacing the water lines under JnNURM project were taken up. Much before the authorities concerned could think of asphalting the road, rainy season began.

Now, the works on widening the road from N Madhavarao Circle to Siddappa Circle has been taken up, adding to the woes further. A stretch of Sayyaji Rao Road that was closed from Basaveshwara Circle to N Madhavarao Circle (Agrahara) for constructing a bridge near Sahakar Bhavan, was opened recently, only to invite the wrath of the people. The muck that had settled on the road didn’t take much time to assume the form of a thick cloud of dust. Similarly JLB road, between M N Srinivasa Circle to Vedanta Hemmige Circle, Sarada Vilas College road, Raghavendra Swamy Mutt road in Krishnamurthypuram and the list goes on. A popular opticals dealer told City Herald, there is an increase in the number of people opting for lenses-be it riding glass or goggles. Earlier, wearing glasses was something of a ‘style’, but now,  it is a necessity, albeit inevitable. True, isn’t it?