Traffic on MG Road sinks into a drain

KOCHI: The work on an underground water drainage system falling right on    Kochi’s busiest road, MG Road, has meant chaos to the already edgy traffic inthe city. Diversion of vehicles through narrow routes, by-passing of important bus  stops by buses and lack of clear sign boards on new diversions add up to commuter woes. The work on the underground water drainage system on the Dwaraka Junction began on January 22. “In 14 days, we were able to finish the underground work and create a water  passage. Now, only the final work of laying down the RCC slabs remains. The    work will be completed by February 30,”, said the PWD site supervisor Varghese Thampi. The underground water drainage, which will open to the backwaters before the Fine Arts Hall, is aimed at solving the water logging issues in the Chittor Road and Vallanjambalam areas. But, as far as the commuters are concerned, there is hardly any respite to the traffic woes. For the last three weeks, buses have been diverted from  the Ravipuram Junction to the Jos Junction.“There are no sign boards about the diversion of buses. You can see cars and autorickshaws plying and many commuters waiting for buses,” says R Gopinath, a commuter. Pallimukku Junction is one of the worst hit among the lot. Since the vehicles from the SA Road are now forced to take to the narrow Church Landing Road, this has caused congestion on the whole junction. “Since the Church Landing Road is narrow, we allot more time for the vehicles to move to that road from the junction. This makes vehicles from all others roads wait longer. This also takes a toll on the congested SA Road,” said a traffic police at the Pallimukku Junction. “There are times when some buses halt for over 20 minutes owing to the traffic snarls,” says K K Asokan, security guard, at the MG Road gate of the Coir Board. Commuters are not the only ones who are affected by the traffic. Business  too has been hit. “For the last three weeks, business has gone down,” says K K Kailasini who runs a fruit juice stall near the Pallimukku junction where the roads have been barricaded.