Bad roads pile up misery

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Bhubaneswar: The Cuttack-Bhubaneswar National Highway has become a nightmare for many commuters living in areas close to it. On the other side, roads from Hanspal Square to Rasulgarh are turning out to be the most vulnerable for accidents.
Saturday’s accident near Palasuni Square on the National Highway in which a youth was killed has sparked a debate on safety of roads and commuters. People expressed their dismay over the safety of commuters in their area and the blatant neglect of the authorities concerned to ensure safe passage and control of the chaotic unregulated traffic.
Locals living near the Palasuni and Rasulgarh area complained that the road conditions in the past few years have deteriorated so much that they are adding more to mishaps in their areas. “You just see the condition of the highway from Palasuni to Rasulgarh. The service road has been damaged to alarming levels. While many devastated families are weeping, the officials are sleeping,” Partha Swain, a resident from the Nuasahi area of Palasuni said.
Many also said the flyover after the Cuttack-Puri bypass junction which terminated at Palasuni has become a dangerous zone.
“Two parallel service roads have been created aside the flyover. While the size of such roads is that of one way’s, many vehicles intrude from the wrong side. Instead of putting barricades at such junctions, ‘cuts’ have been created and people are intersecting the NH at abrupt ends where speeding vehicles join the Palasuni roads,” Jitendra Mahanta, a local vendor from the area said.
Locals complained that the traffic police have now been withdrawn from the Palasuni junction where earlier a traffic cop was deployed to manage the traffic. Many are angry with the pathetic service lane from Palasuni Square to Rasulgarh adjacent to the Rasulgarh flyover.
“This has become an accident zone. It has been in bad shape for many years but no authority has given any attention. Neither is it made nor is it repaired by the government while people suffer in silence and pain, many a times getting injured. Wrong side driving on such narrow and bad road is also rampant and not a single traffic cop is seen managing it,” said Hemant Behera, a resident of Rasulgarh area.
This comes three years after the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had asked the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the Public Works department to take permanent measures to remove the black spots on the highways/roads in Odisha.
In the state, the Palasuni Square and Hanspal Square were marked as black spots where several fatalities are reported every year. Moreover, the Commissioner of Police in twin cities has also asked to scale up the exercise of checking wrong side driving.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Commissionerate Police Anup Kumar Kanungo was not available for comments on the steps taken by his department to prevent wrong side driving on the stretch and steps taken to avert accidents in the region. SMSes sent to his number also did not evoke any response.