One of the new flyovers being built. Many flyovers have been built as a measure to reduce traffic congestion. The other measure is to widen the streets. It only worked initially but now the number of new vehicles coming on the road is so high that traffic jams are a daily problem. These flyovers don't connect to any expressways/highways. You just get onto it and fly over intersections below. That is all. But now you see traffic jams on the flyovers as well!! All kinds of vehicles on the roads (bicycles, rickshaws among cars, and 2-wheelers) and no lane discipline, as well as poor or no proper design of lanes, turnouts, islands, etc. all contribute to traffic coming to a complete standstill. In such circumstances (when traffic stops) sometimes the policeman can be seen standing on the sidelines rather than directing traffic. It is probably too overwhelming. In a study done, most of the traffic policemen were found to have suffered a permanent hearing loss due to the din of the traffic and blaring of horns.
A couple of months ago a section of a flyover collapsed after heavy rains. It was being touted as "terror proof" but came down even before its inauguration!!
"The shortest distance between two points is under construction." ~Noelie Altito
8 comments:
Corruption... That's what this is all about. Horrible thing.
Wow. What a country!
On a different note. Are you Indian? Or American? Your English is very good!
Traffic: we try anything and everything to get around!
Must look out for that Solartaxi, we are on the map, great idea specially to reach Bali and the UN climate conference.(BTW have u noticed Bali is predominately Hindi?).Solar panels make very good sense,a house here can collect energy and return it to the grid, or make hot water etc,the World Solar Challenge has been running again where vehicles travel north to south across the country, experimental vehicles etc, school teams enter as well as experts, at least the roads are flat yet very warm.
yes, bad engineering and poor budgeting!!
@julia - I wish we were doing that (pumping electricity back into the grid). With so much sunshine here, it should be easily possible to do it. I think the cost of solar panels is still prohibitively high for most here. I had read about someone in the Michigan area coming out with flexible solar panels, which would makes things easier for installation. Hopefully they are affordable.
#gudl - Thank you gudl. I was born in India. Education in Indian cities (and some towns) is in English medium. In fact, one of the official languages of India is English (which even the US does not officially have). We have many English newspapers and TV channels. The ability of so many Indians to speak English is the reason many Western companies have made a beeline for India to open their offshore centers here, or to outsource their work. Of course there are other reasons such as low labor costs and better IP (Intellectual Property) laws. And now Indian teachers are tutoring Western kids online in English, Math and Science, thanks to the Internet.
@Julia - Sorry forgot to reply to your question. Yes, I have noticed that many Hindu traditions are followed in Bali. (BTW, "Hindi" is the name of a language, "Hindu" is a person who follows "Hinduism", although there is a debate about "hinduism" being a religion or not, which I can't address here for lack of space). It is interesting that they have kept that culture alive because the Indonesia is predominantly Muslim. Indonesia has the largest number of Muslims, and India comes in second with its large Muslim population.
What an interesting post and the comments are as interesting as your post!!! I am not sure about driving here though...not for the faint of heart is it? I hope solar panels catch on everywhere...
Road to success is always under construction-so are our Hyderabad roads and flyovers.The flyover incident which happened barely a few days after Bomb blasts added to fears .Collapsing even before it was inaugurated is something that should be considered seriously.But we see no concrete steps are taken in this direction.
Post a Comment