Beautiful roads

Beautification is very good. See how they do it on the foot paths in our City !
The footpaths along the main roads are being paved with 'interlocking tiles'. Looks so clean and beautiful. But how much money is being spent ?
On the other side, there are very many roads with deep potholes and dumps of waste. They are not clean, and are a risk for the motorists (even to the pedestrians! ). I wish some part of this 'huge money' spent for beautification be spent for repairing our 'saadaa' roads.

Planting on the foot path

My Social Studies text in the 8th Class ( those days ) had lessons on the reforms made by the Kings. Among the many reforms listed, which are mostly common to all the Kings, is about the planting of "cholamarangal ' (shade trees) along the roads and lanes. King of Travancore was no exception. Trivandrum had (and still has) cholamarangal all along the roads ( except those cut and removed by our development agencies). Though many have been cut, our society is particular to replant the trees ( I don't like to see them small !). That's how many tree saplings are seen on the foot path, these days.
They are all planted right at the middle of the foot path. All the plants are given a protective shielding (mostly of expensive metallic meshed) when planted. And that's the end of it. The shield (cages) starts disappearing.. and over an year, nothing is left.
The picture above shows one such plant, right at the middle of the foot path, and very close to the bus-stop. Half the cage is still intact. I am sure, the other half is on the way to the steel recycling plant, through a local scrap dealer.
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Road dividers can be imaginary

Traffic management is certainly a great task. It's a science, an art, and so is a great technology. Design and layout of roads is a major part of it. The foundation of all technologies is common sense. Any technology, without common sense, is "non-sense".

I think this is true with the case I am showing you here. The photos show a road divider . This is at Vellayambalam. The road from Maanaveeyam junction to Vellayambalam junction. This is a 4 lane road, with an imaginery road divider. But there are a few street lights placed as the divider. A speeding vehicle towards Vellayambalam is almost sure to miss this thin divider.
Look at the photos. You'll find it hard to see the road divider... just because there's nothing like that, but for the street light poles.

Roads in Y Town

Roads in Trivandrum City are getting better ?  However, roads in its Y town is getting worse.
Please see the canals running through a road in the Y town !