With serpentine traffic snarls becoming the norm on arterial roads, the most recent one being an approximately 8-km-long snarl in the Edappally-Vyttila-Thykoodam corridor on NH 66 Bypass on Saturday, the demand is rife that Kochi gets its share of road development projects like the City Road Improvement Project (CRIP) which catalysed the widening of arterial roads in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.
This comes close on the heels of traffic and urban planners, residents’ associations and NGOs demanding proactive measures by the Public Works department, Kochi Corporation, Greater Cochin Development Authority, National Highways Authority of India and enforcement agencies like the police and Motor Vehicles department to initiate steps to widen narrow bellmouths at junctions and clamp down on haphazard parking to ensure smooth movement of vehicles.
Former MP Charles Dias spoke of how Kochi was perennially denied her share of road development projects, thanks to the ‘attitude’ of a section of bureaucrats which acted as a stumbling block. “This has been happening despite Ernakulam district generating maximum revenue in the form of taxes and fees. Moreover, the maximum number of vehicles are registered here. The government must reinvest here in the form of roads and allied infrastructure.”
