Another killer road

H. Kishie Singh

The new Panchkula–Chandigarh link road is accident-prone. No surprises here. It was designed to be that, as most roads in India are. The road is built from Point A to Point B and that’s it. Safety is of no concern.

It is a six-lane, hot-mix, black top, smooth, gentle curves, demarcated lanes, excellent underpass, lane for pedestrians and some sort of service lanes or are these lay-byes? These serve no purpose.

In this day and age of fast cars and bikes any one can zoom along at 120 km/ph – which the cars were doing the day I cruised along the link road. The speed limit is 60 km/ph. A fast car, a near empty smooth road, no policing is best described as foolhardy. The most important rule of traffic management is missing.

Enforcement: What is the use of putting up speed limit signs if there is no one to enforce the rule? This is one of the reasons for Indian roads being the most unsafe in the world.

Another enforcement issue: The service road/lay-bye has been encroached upon by enterprising vendors. A dozen rehris are parked there. One sells juice, another vegetables, and yet another sells fruit followed by one selling bread and eggs. It’s a drive-in market. All your daily-needs’ shopping can be done without getting out of your car. The government should study this functioning. It is a vast improvement of the mess that is an ‘apni mandi. Second problem: Chalk and cheese don’t mix. In technical jargon, “Road user conflict”.

On a high-speed road, motorised traffic should not have to share the road with non-motorised traffic. Yet bi-cycles, cycle-rickshaws and cycle-rehri not only use this road but can be seen using the right-hand lane, the designated fast lane. For some strange and unknown reason, our road builders and enforcement agencies refuse to post ‘keep left’ signage. It would be a great help in traffic management. We need experts to design and build roads. This latest link road proves that experts are conspicuous by their absence and this is the prime reason for 150,000 deaths annually in India. The Yamuna Expressway, considered India’s best highway, has the dubious distinction of killing five and injuring two shortly after its inauguration.

The Gurgaon Expressway in the first 24 months of operation killed 120 persons in 1,600 accidents. Reason: Poor design.

Another reason is the apathy of the officials and the complete disregard and lack of respect we have for human life.

Compare this attitude with that of a government that values life and has a responsibility towards its citizens.

Lady Diana died in a horrific car crash in a tunnel in Paris. After exhaustive investigation, the tunnel was declared the most dangerous in Europe. Reason: eight persons had died in a 15 year period! It was closed immediately and orders given to re-align the tunnel. The Zirakpur flyover has claimed three lives in one mishap recently. Nothing will be done to improve it. There is nothing wrong with this new link road. There is nothing right with everything around it — lack of enforcement, encroachments and, of course, irresponsible, rash drivers, a menace to society. Happy Motoring!