The Kerala High Court on Tuesday observed that if roads were not sufficiently widened, it would cause inequities to citizens and cause major accidents.
Justice Devan Ramachandran said that when any road was constructed, the authorities should keep an eye on the future, taking note of the rapidly increasing traffic and the burden on the road on account of the increasing density of population. The earlier width of a road could have been fixed taking into account the requirement when it was constructed. But continuing to maintain it in such a way would cause inequity to the citizens, particularly when the roads were properly laid.
The court made the observations when a petition seeking to widen the entire stretch of the Nadukani-Parappanangadi road came up for hearing. The petitioner submitted that the stretch from Nadukani to Tirurangadi had been widened to a 12-m carriageway. But the stretch from Tirurangadi to Parappanangadi continued to be 7-m or less wide, due to financial constraints.
The State government said that an additional ₹150 crore would be required to construct the road from Nadukani to Parappanangadi at a width of 12-15 m as initially proposed by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). In fact, the KIIFB suggested a reduction of the road width to 10 m due to lack of funds.
The court said that how could the government say that it lacked funds for widening the stretch when it was going to implement major projects costing hundreds and thousands of crores of rupees.
