You dont have to wait......

until the next accident to repair a collapsed railing....
This is the address of the railing I am talking about:
Krishnarajapuram Cable bridge,
Near K.R Puram Railway Station,
Bangalore.

One day, sometime early this year, on my way to office, the usually over-crowded Old Madras Road beat its own records of the highest peak-hour traffic and lowest speed. I called up my manager and informed that I might be indefinitely late for work, due to a reason I have no clue about, and all I knew was that my bus stood still on the Old Madras Road.

When the traffic finally started moving at a snail's pace ( of course, we were glad and thankful) I looked out of the window to see a huge container truck toppled over. Thanks to the crane that moved the toppled truck to one side of the road, so a narrow one-lane passage was clear for the vehicles to inch their way through. From the bus, some eyes were transfixed on an angle just above eye level towards the railing of the cable over-bridge that we were just crossing. Our road was adjacent to the bridge, at a lower level and ran below the bridge. That is to explain the height difference between the bridge and the road. This way, you might be able to visualize the catastrophic fall of the truck from the over-bridge to the road on the lower level.

God knows whatever happened to the driver, helper and whoever else might have been in the truck that day. I silently hoped it was a movie shoot and everyone inside the vehicle were alive outside the movie screen, but the papers confirmed that it was a bad accident. The truck driver had rammed on to the side railing in the wee hours of morning and the toppled truck scene was too real to ignore. And here I was, with complaints about reaching office late when so much was toppling over in the world!!!!!

The next day, the peak hour in Old Madras Road was in the usual pace. When I crossed the same spot, I noticed that there was a thin caution ribbon tied on the broken railing. For another three months or so, whenever I remembered to give that angled-look towards the broken railing, I saw the caution satin ribbon.[ I like the confidence that the old neon signal, in a tattered caution ribbon, would continue to show Red in the head light of an approaching truck at midnight!!! Read carefully.. so many parameters here !!!].

Over the next few months I saw the ribbon missing. Made me wonder, what if another bicycle/ bike accident happens just because of the gap in the bridge's railing? Till today, this railing has not been fixed. I can say its been like this for about eight months now. Wonder if we are waiting for the next major accident at the same spot, to come back to senses and do something about this broken railing of the ever-populated, forever busy, over-bridge in the most-crowded road in the city.

Comments

Sowmya Gopal said…
Although I don't know which department is in charge for this, will a telephone complaint work ? How about printing this blog (and adding a letter) and sending it to someone like the CM ?
Musing Gal said…
SG nice thought, but sending this to CM will not even make it to his PA's desk, bcoz it is taken care in the local corporation or township and the roadways dept :).
But Dewdrop how about posting this in the Banglore local newsite blog? If someone from that dept reads they might look into it or atleast it will spread the awareness.
Dew Drop said…
Musing Gal and SG,

Thank you for your comments and I like both your recommendations.

Oflate, the local newspaper Bangalore mirror has started looking at my blog site and they have picked up 3 articles to be published in their paper. If they find this bit, they might publish it.

I can consider a CJ approach, if I dont find one on the same lines in any website.

Deepa

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