No Freedom from Bad Roads for Padubidri - Karkala Commuters

Special Correspondent
Pics by Dayananda Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Udupi, Aug 15, 2010: Not long ago we had dreamt of good, broad, commutable and pot-hole free roads and had sacrificed enough thinking the fruits of whatever hardships we undergo would be sweeter sooner or later.  The time has now come to say that all our patience, hardships, sacrifices and hopes and aspirations have come to a naught. In this satellite age when we boast of development in all spheres, our roads or lack of them stand testimony to the shoddy progress we have achieved and the lack of responsibility of our lethargic bureaucracy and opportunistic elected representatives.  With India celebrating its 64th Independence Day one keeps wondering when our commuters will get freedom from these terrible roads alias death traps.

Now, the moment has come, for the people of the coastal area to wake up to the reality and ask for what is rightfully due to them i.e.  proper commutable roads and not death traps.  Freedom, we thought would bring responsibility and accountability to our people and our leaders. But alas! It is still a chimera.  

Daijiword.com team went around the Padubidri-Karkala road to get a glimpse of the condition of this road in which many vehicles including Express buses ply regularly.  This area is an important destination as it leads to Nitte group of educational institutions.  It is the same road that goes to Attur Church also. 

But the road is filled with potholes in quite a few places  and travelling in this road requires riders and passengers to do acrobatics of all kinds just to pass through them.  In Kanjarkatte, Opposite Syndicate Bank, there are so many  slash-filled potholes,  the road resembles like a mini paddy field and vehicles pass through with great difficulty.  Just a few furlongs farther on this road there is hardly anything left on the road except gigantic water filled potholes  which are quite deep and the vehicles move so precariously lest they fall into the deep mid-road wells and also for the fear of damaging their vehicles. 

While the commuters and riders move with utmost circumspection during day time one can but imagine the plight of commuters during night time.  The fate of two-wheeler riders is especially pitiable.  The condition gets worsened when it rains heavily and the potholes get filled with slush that often leave riders guessing which way the pothole is.  Pedestrians walking on the road also move  with fear of getting splashed with  slush filled muddy water when vehicles pass through.

Even the passengers who travel in the buses that ply by this road heave a sigh of relief once the buses cross these major hurdles and come to the highway. 

Kusuma Shetty, a student of Nitte Engineering College who commutes on this road daily through the college bus  says “the moment we cross the high way and come to this road all the students get ready to face the bumpy rides ahead.  The way the buses move is really scary and we often feel the bus may turn turtle any time.   We hope something is done by the authorities at the earliest so that we can travel without fear”. 

One of the drivers of the bus belonging to Nitte Group of Schools says that driving in these roads is nightmarish.  “Earlier it used to take just 20 minutes from the highway.  But now with potholes galore it takes nearly  40 to 45 minutes to pass through this road and reach the highway.  Lot of valuable time is lost in the transit due to bad condition of the road”, he pointed out.