By Dr. B.R. Sainath Iyer
Hunsur Road in Mysuru is acutely curved for about 400-850 meters near Kalamandira to Jaladarshini Guest House and it has been like that for years. Accidents have been occurring on that stretch for years. Suddenly these facts have become eyesore and unacceptable for no known reason and lines are drawn for confrontation between the Government and the NGOs. It is necessary to see all 360 degrees of the issue. It seems that the Govt. has consulted a private agency and on the basis of its report, the Engineer says ‘only solution is to straighten the road.’ And so, a project costing Rs.12 crore will be taken up to broaden the stretch of road, which will also straighten it and this will, it is believed, prevent accidents and loss of life occurring at the stretch. In the meantime, NGOs protested against this project for various reasons and from the discussions, two points emerge, which are worthy of consideration as cause for accidents: 1) Acute curvature on the stretch and 2) Irresponsible transport system. If curvature is the only cause of accidents, do all the curved roads in Mysuru, (there are many, one of 90 degree curvature in Outer Ring Road (ORR) near Seshadripuram College is mentioned by ACP), face accidents? Yes. In this stretch in ORR two accidents occur every week. Do they all have ‘banking’? If so, are we going to straighten all the roads? If not, what is the pressing reason for so urgently putting effect to the straightening project spending Rs.12 crore for 850 meters only on Hunsur Road? Government may have a valid reason. The people only want to know for transparency. A senior Traffic Police Officer had commented that almost all accidents at the spot occur only between 12 midnight and dawn. The curvature in the road exist all 24 hours. If it is the sole cause of accidents, why they do not occur any other time of the day? May be the curvature has no role in the cause of accidents or it is only a contributory factor. So, obviously there must be other more important causes for the accidents. Under these circumstances should we not undertake a thorough investigation for all the causes before jumping to a project at Rs.12 crore to rectify imaginary contributory cause only? The statement of current engineer that the only solution for preventing accidents is straightening the road looks a bit clumsy.
