Karnataka - Mangalore   

Chaotic vehicular traffic a threat to people in city

M. Raghuram

Iron ore trucks worsening condition of roads in Mangalore

MANGALORE: They say if you have driven in Mangalore, then driving in Bangalore, Mumbai and any other city in the world will be a piece of cake.

The chaotic vehicular traffic in Mangalore has become a big problem for the people in the city. Apart from the rash city and express buses within the city, the common man has to brave the roads filled with potholes and unfilled cuttings.

Loud honks

The sudden `U' turns made by autorickshaw drivers, and some motorcyclists trying to break speed limits on the roads of Mangalore are just the tip of the iceberg. If one digs deeper into the problem, there are those in sleek cars with blaring music and talking on cellphones, who do not even slow down at a zebra crossing or at school zones, putting children and pedestrians in danger.

Thanks to an age-old understanding between city buses and policemen, there is yet to be a campaign against shrill honking inside the city.

Iron ore trucks

A new danger to small vehicles and pedestrians is the huge trucks carrying anything from iron ore to haphazardly piled up LPG cylinders or even iron bars with ends protruding from the rear of the trucks. Tempos moving freely in thick traffic also endanger motorists and pedestrians.

Though iron ore trucks are not allowed inside the city, they come into the city during the early hours when the traffic police are yet to appear at their posts. There is a provision that comes under the Hazardous Material Carriage Act, which has to be followed to carry LPG cylinders. The cylinders have to be stacked vertically one above the other, and should be tied with ropes so that they do not shake while in transit. But this is hardly adhered to by the cylinder carriers, and often one can see trucks carrying filled cylinders haphazardly piled up on the trucks.

Mangalore city has been bitten by the development bug. Multi-storeyed buildings are coming up in every corner of the city. The earth excavated from these sites is carried away in open trucks from various parts of the city and with the truck hitting every pothole, a huge lump of loose soil drops down on the road. Several times, it has fallen on two-wheeler riders or other passenger vehicles following the truck.

Though Mangalore City Corporation has written to the Mangalore City Traffic Police, no action has been taken so far, say corporation officials. Sources in the Traffic Police, however, say that there is a shortage of personnel in the division.

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