Kochi has learnt to ‘adjust’ with bad roads. Or, rather, has been forced to do so.
Potholes. Shoddy patchwork. Misalignment. Uneven surfaces. Roads that sink, crack and crumble within months of being relaid. For residents, navigating these issues has become part of the daily commute.
When a road cracks up, it is initially ignored. Then it becomes a crater. Finally, it gets patched up. That erodes in no time. It is patched again. The cycle continues.
All along, accidents happen. People are killed or injured. Occasionally, there will be a hue and cry. And then, the city moves on.
Accountability? Nada.
The High Court recently made it clear that the problem cannot simply be brushed aside as bad driving or individual error.
Recently, while hearing a case on road accidents, the court observed that Keralam’s road-safety crisis also stems from failures in road design and maintenance, vehicle fitness, enforcement and coordination among government agencies.
It then issued a series of time-bound directions on road design and maintenance and ordered the initiation of an Integrated Road Safety Monitoring Platform for real-time tracking of road-safety issues across the state.
The court has also questioned the routine practice of patchworks without addressing why potholes appear in the first place.
Earlier, on June 12, the court had warned that personal liability could be fixed on officials, including engineers, if remedial measures were not taken to prevent roads from deteriorating — particularly when accidents occur because of such conditions.
Last week, State Human Rights Commission chairperson Justice Alexander Thomas directed the district collector to intervene, pointing out the pathetic condition of the Panangad-Kumbalam bridge approach road, Nettoor-Kundannoor bridge approach road, Kumbalam-Aroor bridge road, Madavana junction, Vyttila, Palarivattom, and the stretch near the Ponnurunni railway overbridge.
So, what exactly is the problem? Is this simply a case of poor maintenance? Are we looking at a larger civil engineering failure? Or is it a case of brazen indifference?
A former Army colonel, who once served with the Border Roads Organisation, points to several technical reasons. “Keralam is basically a rainfall-intensive region. For the bituminous course on roads, its main enemy is water. When water percolates into these wearing courses, it gets damaged easily. That is the primary factor,” he explains, requesting anonymity.
The second problem is load, he says. “If load-bearing estimation is faulty, rutting occurs when heavy vehicles pass over it. Here, we carry much more load on vehicles than they are intended to do. This often messes up the estimation,” he explains.
Drainage is another weak point. “Most of our regular roads have drain blockages,” he notes. “When it rains, the water gets clogged or runs off to the sides, seeping into unsealed roads. This causes quick damage.”
Even the unscientific laying of bitumen can affect durability. “For example, the temperature has to be 102-103 degrees. Else, it will not roll well. Attention to detail matters,” he smiles.
And finally, he nails the biggest issue: unscrupulous enforcement.
“Here there is a huge gap between what is in the contract and what is on the ground,” the former colonel says. “In foreign countries, we can see external auditing and inspections at all stages of implementation, followed by huge monetary consequences. It doesn’t work here like that.”
Echoing the views, former National Transportation Planning and Research Centre scientist Sanjay Kumar V S points to design as one of the fundamental failures.
“There are specific guidelines set by the Indian Road Congress for designs to be implemented according to all climatic conditions,” he says. “We have specific norms on how to build roads according to Keralam’s rain-intensive climate.”
Yet, he notes, design flaws remain widespread.
“We have examples from roads built as part of the city road development scheme in Thiruvananthapuram in the early 2000s, which still outperform many roads in the state. It is proven that well-designed roads will last,” says Sanjay.
“What happens here mostly is that the roads are being layered on top of existing faulty foundations over and over again. This does more damage.”
Repairs, he adds, should begin when the damage begins. “There should be immediate action. But such things are hardly followed here,” he says.
D Dhanuraj, chairman of Centre for Public Policy Research, proposes periodic social audits to ensure some sense of accountability. “These audit reports can be handed over to the corporation. Failure to act should lead to a liability claim,” he says.
“We need to develop scientific street designs and have proper audit manuals. Putting details out in the public domain will let people monitor funds, maintenance, etc., regularly.”
Infrastructure analyst Shreeganesh V Nair, too, calls for social audits. “The buck has to stop somewhere,” he says.
“Currently, the responsibility is blurred. Bad roads have been normalised. I recently raised a question at a meeting hosted by the Indian Concrete Institution: ‘Who do I sue in case of a mishap or trauma caused by a bad road?’ Not many have answers,” he says.
“This needs to change. A social audit team should include regular road users, from auto-rickshaw drivers to media persons. It should be totally apolitical. We also need to put a face to accountability, rather than just name faceless entities such as the corporation, Water Authority or KSEB.”
An ace civil engineer himself, Shreeganesh says it is a shame that a city like Kochi is struggling to have in place something as basic as an efficient road system. “Look at the nasty bumps around the metro pillars on Sahodaran Ayyappan Road,” he says.
“There have been several accidents because of them. How did those bumps form? Whose failure was that? At least after the issue was highlighted, has it been resolved? Excuse me, are we really in 2026?”
Fix accountability, and the rest will fall into place, Shreeganesh asserts.
“There is no rocket science needed. Nothing that cannot be fixed. Our national highways and expressways are examples,” he notes.
“We have a lot of catching up to do. Remember the 1984 film ‘Panchavadi Palam’? We seem to be still stuck there.”