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Traffic chokes colombo

by ANTON NONIS

The rapid influx of vehicles into the city has made many approach roads congested at all times causing travelling a near impossible task within the city limits of Colombo for most parts of the day.

Many have argued that Colombo is sourely in need of new roads. The authorities, cannot be blamed for not thinking along the same lines.

The recent reopening of a number of roads which remained closed for several years in the city may have eased traffic movement to some extent. But, that itself is negligible when tabulating how many more roads are really needed to accommodate all the vehicles coming into Colombo on a daily basis.

Senior Superintendent of Police(Traffic, Colombo),Alfred Wijewardene says about 350,000 vehicles come to Colombo a day and the existing roads are not sufficient to cater to the vehicular needs. Analysts have shown that a traffic block persisting for a few seconds can create a congestion extending to half a kilometre.

Many have argued that Colombo is surely in need of new roads. The authorities, cannot be blamed for not thinking along the same lines. But constructing new roads within the city is not as easy as accepting the need for new roads for Colombo is choked at all angles and any fresh roads may be out of the question.

Attempts to construct two major trunk roads within the city limits-the Marine Drive and Duplication Road Extension has come to a standstill, due to both political intervention and objection from residents over compensation issues. Investigations have revealed that both these roads are essential additions to the city's road network and if rightly utilised would serve to minimise congestion in all other parts of the city.

But with both residents and the authorities opting to have their differences resolved in court, the two roads don't look like they will be completed anytime in the foreseeable future. Already the Marine Drive has taken an abandoned appearance, with neither construction crew or paraphernalia in sight. According to informed sources this situation has been created by the residents, a number of who have refused to vacate their houses. Officials accuse the residents of holding out for a higher compensation.

They point out the government had initially negotiated with the residents on compensation before coming to a settlement. And accordingly a fair number had vacated their houses.

However, according to the officials, a handful of residents, who had initially agreed on the compensation had subsequently changed their minds claiming it was inadequate.

This has created a major impasse, with the authorities resorting to legal action.

The Marine Drive which was earmarked as a major highway, stretching from Wellawatte to Galle Face, covers a distance of over six kilometres. It was to be constructed in three stages.

Stage I was from Ramakrishna Road Wellawatte upto Melbourne Avenue-Bambalapitiya covering a distance of 2.26 kilometres. Stag II was from Melbourne Avenue to Glen Arbour Place at the Bambalapitiya junction, covering 1.1 km. The third was from Glen Arbour Place to Galle Face, a distance of 2.68 km.

As the third stage was the longest of the three, the engineers subdivided it to two sections. The first section was upto Kollupitiya railway station and the next was from the station to Galle Face.

For convenience, it was also decided that the Marine Drive and the Duplication Road extension project should be carried out simultaneously. The work got under way in 1995. Originally, the plan was to complete stage I of the Marine Drive within two years.

The entire project is being supervised by the RDA with the Colombo Municipal Council handling the construction on the RDA's instructions.

According to Hudson Silva, RDA's Chief Engineer for the Marine Drive and Duplication Road extension projects, there had been a large number of uncleared lots at the inception in stage I. But it had been gradually brought down and at present there are only three houses to be acquired for demolition.

The engineers are hopeful of clearing these within the next two or three weeks.

However, stage I has court cases pending which is seen as a major stumbling block to the completion of this 2.26 km stretch of road. The RDA will work leaving these sections aside so that these will not cause any obstructions to the laying of the road. The stretch is expected to be complete before the year is out.

However, in a different context the practice of working on two stages simultaneously has begun to pay dividends. Work on stages I and II are proceeding and has eased lengthy legal procedures within a similar time frame since the work is being done on both stages simultaneously. Demolition of buildings has thus been made easier.

Stage II which had 43 uncleared lots now has five. A certain amount of construction too has been carried out upto Jaya road.

Stage III pertaining to the construction, however, still remains untouched. Land acquisition and clearing is being carried out. One hundred houses have to be vacated and demolished.

The rate of progress of the Marine Drive indicates that stage I has taken a full seven years to complete instead of the two that was stipulated in the feasibility study. That is the tale of the Marine Drive.

But the story with the Duplication Road extension is somewhat different. The road bisecting Muslim Ladies College (MLC) on its way to Wellawatte has been constructed upto the school. As there is some objection from the school authorities, construction on this section had been temporarily shelved.

Now the road has been laid on the premises belonging to St. Peter's College where adequate compensation had been paid to the school authorities. A bridge over the Wellawatte canal too has been constructed.

RDA's Director Lands, K. A. Thilakeratne, said that MLC school authorities were reluctant to permit road construction across the school even though the RDA had built classrooms costing Rs. 20 million. The RDA now plans in addition to purchase a block of land at a cost of Rs.29 million for the school in order to go ahead with making the road.

MLC Vice Principal, F. H. Wahab told the `Sunday Observer' that MLC built on a one acre land area had a large student population. She said that with the construction of the road, the school would lose 55 perches of land, but they had to agree for a plot of land only 40 perches along Kensington Gardens close to the school.

Mrs.Wahab said she has decided to demolish the main hall and convert it to a playground. The school plans to build a new hall and a hostel in the new block. The school authorities say that they would shift at their earliest if the land was given to them.

An inspection of the newly built bridge over the Wellawatte canal showed that the bridge was significantly narrower at only 11 metres compared to the 18.4 metres width of the road. Analysts are of the view that this might give rise to traffic congestion at the road-bridge meeting point.

According to RDA engineers, this difference had been unavoidable and was due to a limitation in funds allocated for the construction of the bridge. "There was only Rs. 21 million available for the construction and we had to design it within that budget," Silva said.

Engineers however, opined that there were a number of other bridges in various heavy traffic areas and were significantly narrower than the road, but had not created major traffic problems. However, the authorities emphasise that remedial measures will be taken if traffic snarls were created, along the new bridge.

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