The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Hoardings cause traffic obstructions

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Hoardings cause traffic obstructions

Staff Reporter

Police may initiate steps to remove the most obstructive ones, suggest steps to bring down accidents

— Photo: Vipin Chandran

Unscientific: Hoardings on the medians and foliage obstruct visibility along the main roads in the city.

KOCHI: Though the police have very limited control over the practice of putting up hoardings on the sides of roads and medians, the City Police may take steps to get the most obstructive ones removed, it is learnt.

The incident in which the official car of City Police Commissioner M.R. Ajith Kumar almost had a collision with another car at Marine Drive here on Friday morning has also been attributed to the obstruction of view by advertisement hoardings on the median. The Commissioner's car was going towards his office at the Revenue Tower, when another car coming from the opposite direction took a ‘U' turn at Menaka Junction.

The driver of the Commissioner's car stopped the vehicle just in time to avoid an accident.

Hampers visibility

“The City Police have already forwarded suggestions to bring down accidents. This includes construction of humps along service roads at 4 metres off the entry point to the main road and increasing visibility at junctions. Removing hoardings that obstruct vision of drivers is also part of this suggestion,” said Mr. Ajith Kumar.

The police maintain that there had not been many complaints about obstructive hoardings on main roads so far. But the electronic display boards and big hoardings, as the ones on either side of the Ponnurunni Bridge, could be distracting.

“We have raised this issue with the Kochi Corporation,” said K.S. Baby Vinod, Assistant Commissioner of Police, City Traffic (East).

Another issue raised by commuters along the National Highway are the speed-breakers placed at median openings. The oft-repeated complaint is that the barricades placed as speed-breakers hamper the view of traffic coming in from the other side.

This is, however, contested by the police.

“The experience has been that the speed-breakers helped a lot in bringing down accidents, caused mainly by vehicles ramming on to the hind side of those stopping abruptly to take a ‘U' turn,” said Mr. Vinod.

While the police officer said that the barricades were low enough for those on two-wheelers to see across the road, many challenge that view.

‘Rules not followed'

Though the Indian Road Congress (IRC) had come out with specifications covering almost all aspects of road traffic, nothing has been implemented in the city, said K.J. Sohan, chairman, Town Planning Standing of the Kochi Corporation.

The IRC had formulated guidelines regarding the height and other specifications of dividers, medians, pedestrian crossings and bus bays. However, they were seldom followed in the city, he said.

He was also critical of the unscientific way of traffic diversions undertaken by the police and other agencies in the city.

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