TRDCL cries foul

Road development agencies have been clamouring to get vehicle dumps on junctions and roadsides cleared, saying they affect road maintenance and safety, but the pleas have been ignored all along.

 The Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd (TRDCL), the developer of 42.06 km of city roads under the City Road Improvement Project (CRIP), had raised the issue on multiple occasions, saying the dumps could hinder its contractual obligations. Government agency Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB) had transferred the TRDCL requests to the Traffic Police, but they too have been unable to deliver.

 As per the contract, the TRDCL has to maintain the roads developed by it. The TRDCL had specifically asked for four spots to be cleared of the ‘rust dumps’ - Pattom Junction, Aristo Junction, Museum and Thampanoor.

 At Pattom, scores of vehicles are dumped on the median, and there have been repeated demands from various corners to get the vehicles disposed of. The byroad between the Museum police station and the Kanakakkunnu Palace Grounds had turned a graveyard for seized vehicles years ago.

 ‘’Our contractual obligations include 15 years of maintaining roads developed by us. So, in case of accidents, we are also partially answerable. If medians and openings are involved, we are certainly answerable,’’ TRDCL project director Anil Kumar Pandala said.

 ‘’Vehicles dumped haphazardly affect our maintenance works and road safety,’’ he said.

 Leaking oil from the dumped vehicles also destroys the integrity of the road surface, Pandala said.

 The TRDCL had approached the KRFB with its requests, but the vehicles still rust away in the same old spots. But it’s not that the KRFB has not passed on the message to the authority concerned. KRFB chief operating officer P C Harikesh said that the KRFB had transferred the TRDCL requests to the Traffic Police.  ‘’The dumps are affecting road development,’’ Harikesh said.

 While the Government has announced auction plans, road agencies say the Government should identify land elsewhere to store the vehicles, to stop fresh dumping in the existing locations.