O J’s Corner

No alternative to rail-road infrastructure

Developments on the earth are fast overtaking us, but we are yet to catch up with many of the mind-boggling user-friendly achievements, which have become the order of the day elsewhere. Often we are stymied by mind-blocks of negativity. It is high time we shed the ruinous tendency and whole-heartedly go in for massive infrastructure installations, facilities and services essential for mankind in the third millennium. Services are becoming available at the press of a button. No one can think about falling back to the bullock-cart days. My father’s generation was witness to discerning changes in the transportation sector. They had the bullock-carts, some even had horse-drawn carriages for traveling from one place to another. Bus transport was funny. Those days pneumatic tyres were not there. Bus wheels were fitted with blocks of rubber, which were dragged on by a primitive engine. When the bus stopped, the cleaner was ready with a rod to insert in a hole in front of the bus, with which he rotated the shaft. Now we have scooters with press-button engine starters.
We are aspiring to reach the moon soon, but we have largely ignored the high-speed road and rail travel facilities existing in developed countries. Even the train bogies are antediluvian, compared to Euro standards. When do we think about absorbing some of these modern facilities? Owing to concerns about greenhouse effect, carbon emission and global warming, these modern amenities are largely harmless, issue-wise.
K M Roy, in his column, “With an open mind”, has referred to the knotty traffic problem caused by a conference of doctors held in Kochi. About 10,000 doctors from various parts of the country had converged on the Gulfar International Convention Centre situated on the National Highway Bypass in Kochi. Probably this is the broadest road stretch in Kochi. About 5,000 cars carrying participant-doctors from various places got catapulted themselves on this road stretch, creating a traffic snarl of seven hours unheard-of earlier. Buses, other cars, two-wheelers etc which had to convey students, housewives and the general public to the hinterlands were hamstrung by the traffic block. They resorted to picketing. The district administration and the police top-brass stood mute witness to the clatter of crowds, cars, creatures and care-takers. If things move on like this , we have already fallen into the “Chakravyuha” faced by Abhimanyu.

Kochi has become an international hub on many counts. Smart City, Info mammoths, trans-shipment container terminal, LNG terminal, airport, sea port and the like cry for breathing space for all those working for these institutions, the general public and outlets for people who travel to and fro the hinterlands. Kochi cannot afford to provide accommodation for all. People will have to stay in places close to Kottayam, Alappuzha and Thrissur districts and travel for work.

There is no way out for us, unless new avenues are built. This reminds one of the vociferous campaign undertaken by P J Joseph for high-speed rail and road corridors on the western sector and interlinking of golden quadrilateral and express highways criss-crossing the length and breadth of the country. Plan ahead and catch up with the developments in tune with the times.