Hyderabad: When Secunderabad Cantonment Board engineering staff gave up on making the lane markings on the road from Bowenpally to Trimulgherry, Mr Malcome Wolfe, a resident of Yapral, and his six-member team, took up the job with some unskilled workers and finished it.
The team invested their money into the project, working with the contractor on designs and equipment for four days — from 2 am to 5 am when the traffic is minimum. This was one of the stretches in the Cantonment that required basic lane markings.
Mr Wolfe, president of Roadkraft (an independent body that works on road safety) and a former Air Force officer, said, “Our team approached the Cantonment Board for a junction improvement on the Bowenpally-Trimulgher-ry Road. We submitted detailed drawings to the Board that suggested footpaths, pedestrian crossings, line and lane markings and an economical design by removal of the concrete blocks that were unsafe for vehicles and pedestrians."
However, the contractor ignored the suggestions and completed the work without including any new changes. The road was widened but it had little in common with the expert design.
Mr Wolfe added, “We contacted the line painter of the contractor and spent a few nights working several hours with them in painting lines and lanes. Road marking includes direction arrows, lane dividers, junction dotted lines, 'give way' lines. Today this road has controlled traffic and there are fewer jams because of lanes showing drivers where their vehicles should be.”
The team includes road engineering experts who voluntarily help government agencies — Mr S. Adishankar, Mr Christopher Aaron, Mr S. Gyaneshwar, Ms Tabitha Wolfe, Mr Ashwini Kumar, Mr Jason Mendes and Mr Krishna Mahadevan (an Engineering student from Bangalore -on work experience).
The experts, in order to help with lane discipline, even got stencils fabricated by spending their own money and painted arrow signs on the road to ensure it were clear to motorists as to which lane to be in to turn left or right.
Ms Tabitha Wolfe added, "Most of the public are unaware as their driving skills have not been tested as per the Motor Vehicle Act. Secondly, the infrastructure should match the MVA requirements with regard to lanes, line markings, legal traffic lights, direction signs etc."
A top official of the SCB expressed happiness with the work of the group.
