People unhappy with tardy progress of road concreting

The Hindu

Most concreted roads do not have footpaths, drains

•  Elevated stretches of roads seen as a major problem
• Authorities seek better cooperation from the people

DANGEROUS:With most of the concrete roads not having footpaths, people are having a tough time while boarding buses.

MANGALORE: The way the city corporation has been concreting the roads in the city, it looks as though the people will be exposed to more problems during the coming monsoon. Although concreting has been completed on the 22 of the 32 roads taken up for this work, other facilities such as footpaths and drains are yet to be created on most of these concreted roads.

The newly laid concrete roads have increased the height of roads by about a foot, even as many houses and shops are now at a lower level. Cyril Pinto, owner of a petty shop in Marnamikatte said, “All the water will gush into the shop when it rains. Proper stormwater drains have not been provided. How will I do my business during the rainy season?”

Several shops and about 20 houses are faced with similar problems.

Janet Sequeira, owner of the Janet Enterprise at Marnamikatte, said, “There will be stagnation of water on roadsides. Instead of concreting, they could have just tarred the roads,”

Schoolchildren

A. Gangader, a jewellery retailer, said, “There will be lot of slush on either side of the newly concretized roads, when it rains, because of loose soil. People can neither walk nor use their vehicles,” Venkatraman Bhat, owner of a telephone booth near A.B.Shetty Circle, said, “Now children have vacations but during the monsoon, the school re-opens and the children will face lot of difficulties while going to their institutions (because of slush)”.

“Improper drainage system is a problem,” said Nishan, employee of Super Shop near Milagres. “During rainy season, it will be difficult to load the goods and make deliveries because of uneven surfaces on either side of the concrete roads. The new road is at a high level and vehicles cannot be taken closer to the shop,” he said. Bus drivers, on their part, have another set of problems. Ramesh, a city bus driver, said, “The authorities have not planned the infrastructure properly. The incomplete work will cause a lot of problems in the monsoons as there will be more traffic jams and it will be difficult to drive due to mud ramps (provided for vehicles to get on to the raised roads)”. At many places, the new concrete roads are narrow,” he said.

Although concreting of roads has been welcomed by the people of Mangalore, they want the problems associated with them addressed. Sunny John of St. Antony Cyrian Jacobite Church at Marnamikatte pointed out that the authorities had not provided even a mud ramp in front of the church to facilitate entry and exit of vehicles. Fr. John hoped that the authorities would finish the work before monsoon. “We have cooperated with the officials to the maximum extent and after all it is for the development of the city,” he said.

But G.V. Rajashekhar, Executive Engineer, MCC, seeks better cooperation from the people.

He told The Hindu, “We are appointing gang men in order to make the rainwater flow smoothly.

There is a problem with completing the footpaths as we expect the roadsides to be flooded if people do not give up their propertyin time. We are taking precautions, but there will be problems. It will take sometime to solve these problems. We are doing our best to solve all problems.”