FLYOVERS ARE NOT FOR KERALA

Rapid industrialization of nations across the world has sowed the seeds of traffic blocks everywhere. Precious time of citizens is robbed by the halts at road intersections for signals.  Traffic planners have closely analyzed the issue. They have come up with ‘FLYOVERS,’ the wonderful innovation of our times. The flyover lets uninterrupted traffic at intersections. There are no signals to hinder the flow of traffic.

When we had visited Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bangkok we had discovered that the planners in those places were highly imaginative quite unlike their counterparts in the state of Kerala in India. The cities have flyovers at almost all intersections. Traffic is smooth. Accidents or collisions are rare. They do not while away their time waiting for signals. The impact in economic terms is terrific. Productivity is never hampered.
FLYOVERS IN DUBAI

Taking a cue from these metropolises Hyderabad and Chennai have gone on a spree to build flyovers.  Though they are a long way off to catch up with their imaginative peers abroad they have at least made a beginning. The little that has happened in these cities has made an impact in the lives of the people who reside there.

Kerala which boasts of a high literacy rate and a high density of population has refused to see the obvious. Archaic views prevail in the minds of the planners and the people. They rue the fact that roads are narrow everywhere in the state. They clamor for widening the roads. Widening the roads means displacement of people. The space is limited and no one knows where the displaced are to be relocated. Traffic is clogged at all intersections. Travel between Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, a distance of 200 km take a minimum of four to five hours for most on the road that is called National Highway 47. The experience is worse for travel up to Kannur through Thrissur and Kozhikode.

Roads certainly require widening. But if only the planners had thought of building flyovers across the length and breadth of Kerala much earlier it would have drastically impacted the lives of  Keralites for the better. Perhaps we have to clamor for sending the experts and the decision makers of Kerala on a study tour to the metropolises of the world and force them replicate the wonderful innovation called ‘flyovers’ in Kerala within a short span of time.