MANGALURU:It is no longer a smooth ride for two-wheelers on city roads. Potholes used to be the bane to riders before concrete roads were laid. But now, these roads themselves have become death traps.
The Mangaluru City Corporation, which laid the concrete roads, has left a gap of at least two inches on the centre of the road. “The gap has widened in the last two years maybe due to the interplay of expansion and contraction. The gap is wide enough to destabilise the heaviest bikes. Light two-wheelers like scooters and mopeds can definitely go out of control if they were to cross the gaps,” said Ramesh Shetty, a shop owner near SDM College. “I have seen many two-wheelers going out of control while crossing over the gap,” he added.
Road safety activist Hanumanth Kamath said the corporation should have closed the gap by pouring hot bitumen mix, which is the general practice in all other cities.
Not doing so was surely a cost-cutting tactic by the corporation, he alleged.
The gap runs through the city as the MCC has concretised 28 km of road. “I was a victim of this mindless road construction; my scooter wobbled, I lost control and I fell down in the middle of the road. Luckily there were no heavy vehicles coming behind me.”
“I found out later that my wheels had entered the chasm on the centre of the road which created a kind of drag on the front wheel that led to the toss,” said Savita, a nursing student.
Asked why the gap existed, the city corporation engineers said the concrete roads go through intense heat and if the gap is not provided, they might develop cracks.
Corporators Naveen D’Souza, Shashidhar Hegde, Premananda Shetty and Lancelot Pinto said they had already complained to the engineering department about the lapse and demanded closure of the gaps.