Mangaluru suffers traffic congestion on arterial roads, civic body apathetic

MANGALURU: The lethargic attitude of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) in not utilizing the State Finance Commission grants for road works on time has resulted in traffic congestion on arterial roads.
On Monday, vehicles were crawling on prominent stretches in the city as the MCC, in an effort to prevent fund lapse, undertook pavement works in four of city's prominent landmarks; they might lose out on the grants if they do not commence the project before February.
Another major addition to this work was the Nanthoor-Kadri Road on Monday, which left the motorists in a tizzy since morning.
"As Tuesday was a public holiday, the situation was slightly better. However, things may get back to square one on Wednesday," said assistant commissioner of police (traffic) Uday Nayak. He blamed the city corporation for not giving adequate time to the traffic police to make alternative arrangements.
"Almost all the major arterial roads are blocked for either concrete or development works, and we are left in the lurch as we are not sure where to divert the traffic. This has resulted in the buses moving along the narrow interior city roads, causing traffic congestion," he said.
As of now, Kadri Park Road has been blocked due to Karavali Utsav. The Kadri Kambala Road and Padil-Bengaluru Road are blocked due to construction of culverts. Gokararnatheshwara College Road and Mangaladevi Temple Road have been blocked for setting up rigid pavement.
The net result of these developments is that traffic is getting choked at major entry points of the city like Nanthoor Circle and Pumpwell, as vehicles from Moodbidri and KPT have to move towards either Pumpwell Circle or the narrow KPT-Bejai Road. The Pumpwell Circle has been the cause of gridlocks ever since NHAI undertook the flyover work and additional traffic from KPT and Moodbidri side is aggravating the situation. The KPT-Bejai road is narrow and cannot take large vehicles like buses to move towards the city, and there is another major gridlock in the Kodialguthu area of the city, near Pinto Bakery and Jail Road. The road block in Mangaladevi area means vehicles travelling to Hampanakatta will have to come to Pumpwell and move towards Karavali Circle, adding to the woes.
Traffic police are peeved at this, and they say this will continue for at least a month or more. They pointed out at the half-kilometre rigid pavement works near Forum Fiza Mall, which still is continuing for the past four months, although corporation had assured that it would be completed within a month.
Joint commissioner Gokuldas Nayak admitted that the situation was unpleasant and will bring it to the notice of the corporation commissioner to take measures to expedite the work.