THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The busy Museum junction in front of the Museum Police Station cuts a sorry figure these days with chock-a-block traffic. Road experts are keen to see the junction redesigned with the ‘Rose Garden’ in front of the Museum being converted into a more spacious area. People blame the Museum Police station for the chaos and hardship, as the visitors to the station park their vehicles in the vicinity, adding to the depository of seized vehicles at the station.
The junction is a busy stretch with four roads - the to-and-fro main road, Nanthavanam, Kanaka Nagar (RKV Road), and the road leading to the Museum & Zoo campus. Opposite the Museum gate is the statue of C Kesavan, and behind it is the ‘Rose Garden’, which is currently in utter shambles with overgrown plants. Interestingly, it doesn’t have any rose plants but has plenty of Ixora (Thetti) plants. Unfortunately, due to a lack of maintenance for close to a year, it cuts a sorry figure during the week-long Onam tourism season when the capital city is all decked up and illuminated.
Anilkumar Pandala, former project head and managing director, of Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd, a concessionaire of Kerala Road Fund Board, who executed the Rs 440 crore 42 km Thiruvananthapuram City Roads Improvement Project is quite disappointed with the congestion at the busy Museum junction.
“If the road next to the statue of K Karunakaran is curved a bit, then the road can be opened up for free-left, and it will only take up less than a cent of land. This can help reduce the pressure on the limited stretch when the signal is red. Moreover, the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has put two e-toilets at the place adding to the confusion. The toilets don’t have a chemical decomposing unit either. The ‘Rose Garden’ should be taken apart, and it’s high time the Museum Junction is redesigned”, Anil Kumar Pandala told TNIE.
Former PWD National Highway Chief Engineer K P Prabhakaran also feels that the Museum Junction should have been redesigned long back.
“The busy stretch is an at-grade intersection, where a local road intersects a main road at the same elevation or grade. This requires vehicles to stop on one roadway when the other roadway has the right of way. So grade separation should be implemented at the Museum Junction by changing it into two - three-tier roads as well as bringing in an underpass or elevated roads to accommodate the heavy traffic”, Prabhakaran told TNIE.
According to B G Sreedevi, former director of, the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC), the traffic at Museum junction is more than 5,000 Passenger Car Units (PCU) per hour.” The norm is that if we see PCU of more than 10, 000 per hour, then a flyover should be constructed. In the case of Museum junction, it is not far when the PCU reaches more than 10, 000 per hour”, said Sreedevi.
Another busy spot is the Museum Police Station where 75 - 100 people visit daily. S Manjulal, Station House Officer, Museum Police, told TNIE that visitors that come to the station in four-wheelers are directed towards the RKV Road to park their vehicles to avoid traffic blocks.
“There are days when the traffic lights go kaput. The police cannot control traffic that passes through five roads. We are already working with minimal strength. Road designers should take up a call on shifting the Museum and Zoo entrance to another side so that the congestion can be reduced”, said Manjulal.