Pothole-riddled arterial roads make commute a nightmare for Kochiites

The proliferation of potholes even on innumerable arterial roads and on national highway corridors has made commuting a nightmare in Kochi, following which angry motorists, pedestrians and others are demanding accountability from the agencies concerned.

Ranjit Thampy, a city-based socio-environmental activist, said that only the roads which had been resurfaced a few years ago in the city hub by Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) were largely found to be free of potholes. He noted that this indicated a failure by the Kochi Corporation, Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA), Goshree Islands Development Authority (GIDA), Public Works Department (PWD), and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to ensure that preventive maintenance and the mandatory resurfacing of damaged corridors were carried out before the onset of the monsoons this year as well.

“The reason why roads that had been resurfaced using the BMBC method (that comes with a five-year warranty), and NHAI-owned NH corridors that are resurfaced using higher specifications develop potholes has to be probed. It often takes over an hour to reach from one point to a nearby point due to the worsening condition of roads and obstructive parking on almost all roads,” he said. Sources in the traffic police said that they were hamstrung, considering the unprecedented number of severely-potholed roads in the city and its immediate suburbs and the plethora of bottlenecked junctions. “We are fed up with commuters often complaining to us about serpentine traffic snarls, wastage of time, fuel and the wear and tear of their vehicles. Incidents of road rage and accidents too are becoming common, since motorists often enter the wrong side of roads to avoid potholes,” they said.

The GCDA-owned Kaloor- Kadavanthra Road has turned from bad to worse during the past couple of months due to the inordinate delay in executing pre-monsoon maintenance works and resurfacing.
| Photo Credit:
R.K. Nithin

Gaping potholes

With gaping potholes galore on the main carriageway and service roads of the NHAI-owned 17-km-long Edappally-Aroor NH 66 Bypass and the Kundannoor Junction-Maradu NH 85 corridor, the GCDA-owned Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road, the Kochi Corporation’s Stadium Link Road, the GIDA’s trio of Goshree bridges, the PWD’s Thammanam-Pullepady Road and the NH Bypass-Vennala-Seaport-Airport Road corridor, NGOs and others filled a handful of potholes with stones and mud. There were also protests, with anything from shrubs to plantain trees coming in handy to warn motorists of impending potholes.

Road owning agencies cite administrative delays for not doing preventive maintenance, rains and slack inter-departmental coordination as the reasons for the pathetic plight of roads in the city.

Mayor M. Anilkumar spoke of how the Stadium Link Road would be resurfaced once the rain abated.

Sources in the GCDA said that although tender was finalised to resurface the Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road earlier this year, the State government had not given sanction to execute the ₹2.50-crore work. “The GCDA can directly award works only up to ₹1 crore. For now, workers have been directed to temporarily fill potholes and to place sign boards warning of potholes,” they said.

On its part, the Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) is facing flak for delay in repairing damaged and trenched parts of the arterial Civil Line Road that it barricaded a year ago for Kochi metro’s Kakkanad extension.