Lack of road width, costly land price cited as reasons
Representational Photo - DC archive
Chennai: It’s a common sight to see emergency vehicles, such as ambulances and fire engines, losing precious minutes due to traffic on city roads. Unlike in the West, where the United States and many European countries have established a separate lane, called a shoulder, to facilitate uninterrupted movement of such vehicles, key stakeholders argue that such provisions can’t be envisaged on Indian roads.
Citing lack of road width as the major reason for this lacuna, an official in the highways department said that providing exclusive lanes would be practically impossible.
He mentioned the instance of another separate lane being planned sometime ago, but which was currently on the backburner. “There was a proposal to develop the BRTS in Chennai, allowing buses to ply on a dedicated lane, but it could not be implemented because of not being able to find adequate land,” he said. He further added that such provisions required a bold decision from the authorities as land costs were becoming exorbitant.
While it is well known that the roads need widening, S. Sivanandan, deputy commissioner, traffic (planning), said encroachments were a challenge. “Parking of vehicles in a haphazard manner, compounded by vendors setting up stalls on the pavement, forces people to walk on the roads,” he said.
Embarking on a mission to widen the roads, Chennai corporation recently announced that seven arterial roads, including Choolai High Road, Royapettah High Road, Dr. Natesan Salai, R. K. Mutt Road in Mylapore and Purasawalkam High Road would be expanded to ease congestion. A corporation official said, “Work to widen Harrington Road is currently under way, and we are trying to widen the roads wherever possible, but space constraints are challenging.”
( Source : dc )
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