Sewage work creates accident black spot

The BWSSB has been working on this stretch of road in front of St. Joseph’s College for more than a month now.

By Christopher Isaac

BANGALORE (Jan. 10)—A drainage repair project that started more than a month ago near St. Joseph’s College at Shantinagar has made the road outside the college an accident-prone area.

More than six accidents have occurred on the road in the past year, involving students and faculty from the college. Most of the accidents have happened while they cross to and from the postgraduate to the undergraduate blocks.

Work to lay pipes has resulted in the narrowing of the road, aggravating the traffic situation.

The traffic here has been steadily increasing in the past year and a half, especially since the work has been going on,” Arunodhayan Sam, an assistant professor at the college, said.

Sam told The SoftCopy that a motorcycle ran over him recently, fracturing his foot and leaving him bedridden for 45 days.

Dr. Daniel Fernandes, principal of the college, said the Bangalore Water Supply & Sewage Board never gave any warning before beginning work more than a month ago.

“It’s never easy to cross the road outside, and there’s always a lot of debris and dirt lying around with no one to clean it,” Fernandes said.
A source at the BWSSB said the work would take at least another month to complete, even though it was started more than 40 days ago.

The already narrow road has been made narrower thanks to the unfinished work by the BWSSB, posing a threat to pedestrians as well as drivers and riders.

Sam said both students and staff have asked for a skywalk or a footbridge to be constructed to make crossing between the two blocks hazard-free.

“An underpass or footbridge is necessary since we need to consider the lives of the students as well,” he said.

But the principal said he had approached the police several times asking that the street be made a one-way traffic road, but to no avail.

“We’ve represented our case to the Ashoknagar Traffic Police Station many times, but they have not replied to any of our complaints,” he said.