The Kerala High Court on Wednesday came down on the Alappuzha District Collector and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the inconvenience caused to pedestrians and motorists due to the construction work for the elevated highway on the Aroor-Thuravur stretch.
Justice Devan Ramachandran orally observed that the Collector and the NHAI authorities were blaming each other for the traffic mess on the stretch. The court asked what the Collector had been doing all these months. The Collector should have invoked his powers as Chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority treating it as disaster and taken steps to resolve the problem. It was after the court alerted the Collector that he visited the area, the court said.
All roads, including service roads, are damaged. The Collector has a duty and responsibility to the people. Those who travel with pilot vehicles do not know the hardships faced by people, the court said, adding that it was shocked to hear that altogether 36 persons had been killed in road accidents over the years on the stretch since the construction work began.
The court said the NHAI had far higher responsibility. It cannot put people to ransom. The NHAI authorities took over the central portion of the road and did not make alternative arrangements for smooth traffic before the construction work started. The NHAI contractor did not remove remnants of old roads. “When you started work on the road, you knew very well that traffic was going to be disrupted. You should then have made alternative arrangements,” the court told the NHAI counsel.
The inconvenience caused to people in the recent past could not be forgotten easily. The court said the old and infirm as well as students used the roads with vehicles wheezing past them. The preparatory measures must be completed in a few days, it said.
The Government Pleader submitted that the work on laying service roads had begun with necessary traffic diversions along the stretch.
