Concrete traffic junctions to ease jams

It's a driver's nightmare — whizzing down a concretised road, only to screech to a halt at a traffic junction that is uneven and full of potholes, leading to massive traffic jams.

It's been evident for years now that concrete roads at junctions are better than those made of tarmac or paver blocks. Now, the BMC has decided that it will concretise these junctions. “We have decided to take up 108 junctions across the city,” said Giridharilal Agarwal, chief engineer, roads department.

The decision to concretise junctions was taken by the roads department after Aseem Gupta, additional municipal commissioner, proposed the idea to the civic chief. The concretisation will also ensure that roads adjoining the junctions do not get damaged. “Utility agencies who dig up the roads and junctions, never fill up and re-surface the dug up part properly. This ruins the junctions and also loosens the roads bonding, leading to cracks and undulation,” said a senior official.

A circular has been issued to officers across all of the 24 civic administrative wards, asking them to not allow any utilities to dig at the junctions. “There is no point of levying heavy fines on the utility agencies because it is not serving our purpose of maintaining the roads,” said Agarwal.