October 25, 2010
Here is a thought, which has been troubling me ever since I visited the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, USA in October 2008.
Our ghat roads, be it be Agumbe or Shiradi are in bad shape. Every time people talk about it or media highlights about the sorry state of these, more money is poured into bad engineering or corrupt system, in the name of "repair".
![](images1/agumbe_102510-1.jpg)
![](images1/agumbe_102510-2.jpg)
![](images1/agumbe_102510-3.jpg)
![](images1/agumbe_102510-4.jpg)
![](images1/agumbe_102510-5.jpg)
However, here is a radical (may be expensive to start with), but effective alternative to ghat roads. That is placing viaducts where road cannot be made well and also flyover like construction made with concrete spans, with support from concrete pillars. This also eliminates the need for deforestation for road widening. I saw this in Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina (details are available at http://www.blueridgeparkway.org/v.php?pg=111), where a scenic road passes on the viaduct, a green Tanawha trail - walking path for trekkers crisscrosses below the viaduct.
Millions of visitors/ trekkers/ photographers visit this place, just to see this engineering marvel, coexisting with nature.
Why don`t we put forward such an idea at least for the irrepairable segments of our ghat roads? I am sure construction cost is not an issue, if the safety and convenience are taken into account (many lives are lost in these ghats due to bad road engineering). If done well, I am sure it would make Agumbe the most scenic drive in India !