BANGALORE: After Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner's declaration of filling all the potholes in the coming months, the Palike has begun the repair work in full throttle.But, as the holes in the roads are being filled, the divider, a crucial element in managing traffic is being left out.Most of the dividers in the city are black with soot from the smoke emitted from vehicles, thereby reducing visibility.The white reflector paint on the dividers is almost as black as a kettle.The cat’s eye reflectors are broken, have a coat of thick soot, or the reflector is missing altogether.A combination of poor visibility of the divider and oncoming vehicles driving with high beam have resulted in a number of accidents over the past few months in the city, the most recent one being of Gurunath Shetty.The 24-year-old had collided into a divider, that threw his car to the side of the oncoming traffic.Another classic example is Marathalli.While the divider at either ends of the market area in Marathalli are more or less visible, the area near Ganesha temple in the market area has very poor visibility.To add to it the bus stop near the temple blocks the visibility, putting vehicular movement from Marathalli bridge towards Old Airport Road at high risk.In the last three months there have been three accidents, where the vehicles heading towards Old Airport Road have collided with the divider soon after the temple.“Last month, while I was driving at night, I saw a Santro go head-on into the divider.A bus had stopped at the bus stand and the driver thought of overtaking him at that moment, not realising that there was a divider less than 10 metres ahead.Another reason why this particular stretch is witness to so many accidents is its a junction and also the road’s width reducing considerably,” said Kenneth Sujan, an employee at Eco space.Apart from the incident narrated by Sujan, there have been two other accidents, one where a cab hit the divider, while in the other case a car hit the divider and the impact tossed the car over the divider.Also, all these accidents occurred post 11.30 pm.City Express had published a report, ‘There’s no bridging the divide’ on July 20, stating the deplorable conditions of the dividers in the city.The report sited the divider on Domlur Main Road.The metal railing on the divider is distorted due to the frequency of car crashes, as a result bending them and giving them jagged edges.A drive too close could cause serious injuries.What makes matters worse is that the divider is also rusting.The BBMP superintendent engineer for Major Road Work (MRW), K T Nagraj, had mentioned that after consulting with the traffic police they found that due to the dividers on 100 Feet Road, accidents had reduced by 23 per cent in the area where these dividers were placed.The Palike had laid 65 kilometres of these dividers that are 0.5 metre high and wide at the base and reduces to 0.3 metres at the top.The question that arises is if the Palike is so bothered about the safety of the public, why have the existing dividers not been maintained? Why have they been left covered in soot? When an engineer from the Palike’s Major Road Work (MRW) department was contacted, the official agreed that the condition of the dividers in the city was abominable.He also mentioned that all the dividers and speed breakers must be painted at least once a year, but the dividers have not seen a fresh coat of paint in years.“We had submitted a proposal last year to paint all the dividers, but due to lack of funds it was not sanctioned.This year again we have submitted a proposal of approximately 100 crores.Once it is sanctioned we will begin the work,” said the executive engineer.The engineer said that the agenda was to paint all the medians and speed breakers and install cat-eye reflector wherever required.However, when questioned what will happen till the budget is approved, he said, “Unfortunately we cannot do anything at the moment.The ward corporators should clean the ward on a regular basis.” Even though the frequency of road accidents with dividers is high, is the Palike turning a blind eye to the statistics due to the absence of funds?
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