KOZHIKODE: Apart from bad roads that claim lives on the road, unscientific renovation of roads have also created death traps. When the Public Works Department renovated national highways, they failed to level the difference between the height of the road and the soil on both sides on many stretches of city roads. As a result, vehicles are not able to give way to overtaking drivers at narrow points leading to bikes often skidding off the roads.
A group of volunteers last week stepped in to fill joining points of some of the connecting roads to the main roads - Kannur road and Wayanad road. They said that since they were witness to big and small accidents in the area, they had ventured to fill the differences on road sides. “It’s disheartening to see the apathy of workers while renovating roads. It takes little time and consideration to save many lives. When the road is above surface level, vehicles are not able to give way to overtaking ones. Two-wheelers faced the threat of skidding off the roads,” said K.S. Arun Das, a member of Team Clean Beach that levelled the area between Gandhi Road and Kannur road.
PWD superintending engineer T.S. Sindhu said that the department was not aware of the situation and would do the needful immediately after studying the possibilities. She attributed rains, that followed the renovation, as the reason for the soil erosion on both sides of the road.
