Mangaluru: Kudla is in a mess and there seems to be no ‘way out’!
A traffic diversion was worked out for a period of two months covering the central business district area, Mangaluru, from November 8, to make way for the road development works from Hampankatta Junction to Light House hill.
However, when traffic snarls went out of control, an emergency meeting was held by MLA Vedavyas Kamath, Smart City executives, MCC and the police on Monday, and a new plan was formulated.
Since the UGD work is also going on simultaneously in the busy Car Street area and in the Commercial hub of the Bunder area, the commuters have been put to immense trouble.
The new diversion/roads that will be opened are:
*Direct connectivity between PVS Circle to KS Rao Road
*PVS-Navabharat Circle-KS Rao Road, Sharavu Ganapathi Temple, GHS Road-Clock Tower
*KS Rao Road-Old Service Bus Stand- Mulky Sundar Ram Shetty Road
*State Bank-GHS Road- PM Road-KS Rao Road
*KS Rao Road- VT Road-Raman Pai convention Centre- Dongarkeri- New Chitra/Mannagudda
*Sharda Vidyalay Road to be opened from Nov 10
*Ramp to be made at Old Bus Stand (near Bata Showroom) to reach Hampankatta road
*Hampankatta road to remain closed from signal to Catholic Club so that commuters can reach Catholic Club and take Mulky Sundar Ram Shetty road to Jyothi
*Jyothi -Don Bosco-Milagres Cross road-Milagres Church road-Rly station-AB Shetty
*Work to be carried out in Bunder area only in the night and open the area for vehicular movement in the day
The way in which the road works were taken up in the city has made way for criticism from various quarters. While memes are being churned out on social media, the common man is speaking about the sheer lack of planning and co-ordination between stakeholders.
“We are so perfect in non-co-ordination,” says S Nandagopal, a senior journalist, who feels that it is rather ridiculous that an MLA of the area says he was not aware of what is going on in his constituency.
Nandagopal, who felt the pinch of the utter cacophony out in the city, first took to Facebook to question the state of affair.
“After all the mess was created, they are now busy blaming each other,” he says adding that what was the need to take up work on busy areas simultaneously.
“The festive season is here. We will have to wait and watch if the new diversion will yield any result,” he says.
While commuters are facing trouble, there are people visiting these busy areas on work daily.
Shivaswami, a package water delivery boy says that he has to put in three times the hard work to now deliver water to the market area.
“We park our truck several kilometres away from the market area and carry jars on our shoulders. Till yesterday, there was one set of traffic diversion and today there is a new diversion in place. Do we have an option but to co-operate because at the end of the day it is ‘development’ work,” he says.
Many commuters say that opening of the Old Bus Stand road seems to be of some help amidst the chaos.
