Trichy roads await road markings

TRICHY: The mandatory road markings, as per the provisions of Indian Road Congress (IRC) are absent on the crucial roads in the city, even as a year has passed since those roads were laid. Apart from road markings such as centre line (white colour solid and broken lines), speed breakers that were laid months ago have not been given white stripes to prevent accidents.

Trichy City Corporation had re-laid the arterial roads including VOC Road behind the central bus stand and SBI Road near the Trichy railway junction several months ago. Both the roads don’t have the centre lines to earmark the carriageways. In the absence of medians, such road markings streamline the vehicular movement, as motorists often overtake and drive their vehicles in the wrong direction. The civic body has not even painted the white stripes on speed-breakers either. "The speed-breaker before Thennur flyover has been awaiting white stripes for almost a year now. Commuters approaching the road for the first time often end up in accidents but authorities are ignoring the safety of the common man," S Umesh Kumar, a resident of Big Bazaar Street said.

IRC rules have made road markings mandatory for newly-laid roads. "The cost of road markings is also included in the project cost of new roads, but the civic body often doesn’t giving road markings to new roads. Poor quality of the paint also results in the markings fading away very fast," O Balasubramanian, ex-councillor with Trichy City Corporation, said. Medians can be built on the wider city roads such as Royals Road and Williams Road, but the civic body has not considered such safe infrastructure measures. "We have been repeatedly telling the civic body to provide road markings, but our demands were not addressed. The district administration will be intimated about the importance of proper road markings," an official with city traffic police wing said.