By K.B. Ganapathy, Editor-in-Chief

Over a thousand citizens of Mysuru, comprising a few NGOs, assembled this morning at the Kalamandira premises and then marched towards the bend near Jaladarshini Guest House in a straight human chain to protest against the Government’s decision to straighten this stretch of road at an estimated cost of Rs. 12 crore and over 50 trees that will have to be felled for this purpose.

The reason for undertaking this work, according to the Government, is the recurring accidents taking place at this point of the bend. I also participated in the protest as a concerned citizen of the city and spoke to some of the retired engineers who have experience in building roads in India and abroad. I asked one of the engineers if there is any other way of solving the problem without  spending so much for so little a stretch when roads are built to hill stations with many hairpin bends.

The answer came straight saying, “First and foremost the accidents in this place usually happen either early in the morning or after 11 or 12 O’ clock in the night and often the drivers are youngsters or drunken persons. The Government could have gone to the local Police authorities and obtained data regarding the accidents during the past three years before hastening to go ahead with this work. During day time the incident of accidents are very rare. Even so, there are other ways of avoiding accidents in this bend at night. The Police can restrict the speed to 50 kms per hour and provide warning signals prominently along with a few speed breakers.”

Having heard him, I spoke to another concerned citizen of the city H.R. Bapu Sathyanarayana who is a frequent writer to this paper. His solution for this problem seems to be less time consuming road work and less expensive without having to cut the trees. He said, if the present plan of the Government is to be executed, it would require not only cutting of the trees but also doing a lot of earth work on one side of the road where sewage and drinking water pipes are laid. These pipe-lines will have to be removed and relaid to enable straightening of the road, he said.

According to him, the simple solution is to provide super elevation at the outer edge of the curve which is now not provided by whoever built this road. This is a great technical flaw at this point. This is called banking and since there is only one major curve on this road it could be done without either broadening, straightening or cutting of the trees as contemplated. If banking is done, vehicles will not lose the road grip and even at 50 or 80 kms per hour speed the chances of toppling are less.

However, with a twinkle in his eyes, he said even Almighty God cannot help an accident from happening if the driver is drunk or sleeps off or over-speeding.

Bapu Sathyanarayana asked me if I had seen the Well of Death where two or three motorcyclists inside the metal dome ride in high speed without getting toppled even when they ride perpendicularly the 90 mts radius curve. He also suggested providing Rumbling Strips and normal speed breakers at the appropriate points of the curve.

A 250 mts curve can facilitate vehicles to go at 80 kms per hour speed on National Highways which is set to be a standard. However, if the curve is 90 mts the speed limit is put at 50 kms per hour.  This can be modified if the Highways run through urban areas and the road too can be modified, according to Sathyanarayana.