22 May 2023  |   06:08am IST

Why no medians on 4/6 lane highways/bypasses

There are vast stretches of the 4/6 lane highways in the State without a median which is a recipe for a disaster waiting to happen. If a proper height median is in place there is no question of a vehicle jumping lanes and going on the opposite side. Just for an example, there is a stretch from Senaulim junction to Verna junction, where long stretches of road has no median or plastic stanchions and where vehicles overtake with impunity. 

Just some days back, a young 23-year-old youth lost his life as his car went on the other side of the road and crashed head on onto a pickup bringing instant death. Maybe, if a concrete median or plastic stanchions, was in place his life could have been saved. 

There are many other places where the medians are missing. Calling on the PWD/CPWD to get these medians built on a war footing before more lives are lost. A median is a must and has to be done when the highway is built and not as an afterthought on a 4/6 lane road primarily to avoid overtaking. 

In Goa, overtaking from the left or right is due to road indiscipline and bad driving sense with the tourist taxi operators, who are the main offenders. In a place, namely Mumbai, where the vehicles are four times more than our State, one never finds rash overtaking or jumping lanes, with smooth flow of traffic as the order of the day with the Traffic Police keeping a hawk’s eye on any defaulters and as a result very few accidents take place.


IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar