Not Smart! Constructing Water Fountain Circle at Mallikatta- Truly a ‘Blind Spot’ Structure?

By
Alfie Dsouza, Team Mangalorean.
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Not Smart! Constructing Water Fountain Circle at Mallikatta- Truly a ‘Blind Spot’ Structure?

Mangaluru: I have said it earlier, and will say it again that “One thing for sure that Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) and its officials know how to spend taxpayers money on projects that don’t serve the purpose of the citizens, motorists or commuters”. On the outset the mega Circle constructed near Mallikatte, on Kadri Road-Mangaluru is one of the biggest blunder done by the Engineer/contractor, which takes lots of road space and which has been creating confusion for motorist, due to intersection of four roads. Ask any auto-rickshaw drivers, shop owners, motorists, citizens- they will all say its dumb to have such a large circle, which was definitely not needed. And now that they have decided to add a Water Fountain’ inside the Circle, will make it still more worse for motorists. Truly it’s going to be a “BLIND SPOT” structure- believe it or not!

Looking at the slow progress of this project, instead of a “Water Fountain Circle” seems like a “Mini Taj Mahal” is coming up? Been months since the work has started on this project. Take a shoddily engineered road and add to it a dollop of reckless motorists and a drizzle of pedestrians with no sense of self-preservation – and you have a recipe for disaster. With few thousands of new registrations of vehicles every day, traffic is going to be a titanic problem in this Coastal City- and added to that what really makes a congestion more worse is due to the large unscientific circles/rotaries at various junctions. Due to poor planning while the new roads are constructed, there are cases where you can find mega circles at unwanted places, and on the other hand there are no circles at all, where they are really needed. Not a “Smart” move for a “Smart City” like Mangaluru?

Okay the latest progress on this Mega Mallikkatte Circle is that MCC is planning to construct a fountain in the middle of this Circle, which is learnt is funded by a builder from that locality. And when the restructure of this Circle was going on, a bunch of CCTV’s installed by the Mangaluru Traffic Police, have been now removed- and the motorists, especially private buses are using the benefit by not taking a U-turn around the circle, instead make a turn skipping the circle.The traffic police department had spent close to a crore, on these CCTV’s to crack down on motorists disobeying traffic rules- and now that these CCTVs have been removed-who knows where they have been dumped? Oh well, tax payers money gone down the drain.

At the moment, even before the Water Fountain Circle is fully completed, it will be yet another safety hazard the motorists once the fountain is fully done- it would be a blind spot for traffic coming from opposite direction. According to a fruit stall employee, everyday there are a few narrowly missed accidents because of this mega circle, and when the fountain is constructed, you are talking about sure accidents? At present for motorists going up from Kadri Road/City Hospital side towards Mallikatta/Kadri Market, you can’t even see the traffic coming from the opposite direction. Similarly motorists come from Kadri market side going towards City Hospital/Bunts Hostel side, they can’t have a good view of traffic coming from opposite direction. Just imagine what it would be once the water fountain is done and starts functioning- more obstruction of view!

For large buses like the KSRTC green colored city buses, the drivers are having a tough time to make a turn around this circle, due to bad planning and other obstructions. Ask any residents or auto-rickshaw drivers or other motorists, they all simply laugh or pass silly comments on the existence of this “Eighth Wonder of the World?” And the bad part of this Mallikatta Circle is that most of the traffic, especially the private buses coming from Bendore side-towards Mallikatta and proceeding towards Kadri market don’t even come around the circle, instead make an easy and quick turn in order to avoid the circle. That’s a safety hazard, because motorists coming from Kadri side and going towards Mallikkatta may end up in an accident when these bus drivers skip making a turn around the circle. First of all our Kudla roads are narrow, and with these mega circles they are making it more worse, resulting in traffic congestion and accidents.

This large circle at the Mallikatte junction has already lots of obstructions for vehicular movement from 3-4 directions, and everyone is coping with it. This is an example of yet another absence of proper road engineering. While the city’s vehicle population is increasing at this maddening pace, and when there is no scope for road growth with the city’s road density restricted to certain size, and now with these large circles the traffic situation will still get worse. In this scenario, the perennial problems posed by poor road engineering (which end up with roads being designed with bottlenecks) and lack of motoring skills make a deadly combination for a city that seems to be facing “certain death”. This is the main cause of traffic congestion, causing a chain reaction of gridlocks affecting adjoining areas too – a gridlock made worse by motorists blatantly flouting traffic rules.

If one dissects and analyzes the humongous traffic woes of the city, what stares back is the extremely poor engineering and design of roads – a ready-made recipe for frequent traffic gridlocks, made worse by reckless driving and little regard for rules. The other big culprit behind frequent traffic bottleneck is the tendency of Mangaluru’s roads to suddenly narrow in. Road engineering actually branches out of civil engineering and involves planning, design, construction, and maintenance of all things that ensure smooth flow of traffic and safety of motorists as well as pedestrians. The concerned architect/engineers/contractor and the sponsor should once again look at this project before it’s launched- Excuse me, MCC officials please don’t put motorists and commuters life in risk, just because you have sponsor to build this “Water Fountain Circle”, which is going to a “BLIND SPOT”, and a “SAFETY HAZARD” zone for motorists!


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