STRAIGHT DRIVE

Ihave been driving to Kolhapur before the Mumbai-Pune Expressway was built, and the Pune-Bangalore highway was modernised as part of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ambitious Golden Quadrilateral project. Never had I felt so unsafe as I did during my recent trip to Kolhapur. I could cover the distance in less time, but stretches with suspension bottoming and axle breaking potholes made for a unsafe journey. Cars almost sailed over the potholes made invisible by water clogging. Trucks and buses saw their axles bounce like rubber balls. In stark contrast to building 100 km of roads per day is the Pune-Satara stretch of the NH4. Numerous diversions (with potholes and giant speed humps) dot this stretch. These were built to facilitate the erection of bridges. A decade later the bridges are yet to be operational. The traffic, left to fetch for itself, has cars paying a toll of Rs.80. Heavy vehicles pay much more.

Over the condition of the roads, what made me feel the most unsafe was to pass heavy vehicles – tractor trailers and ODC car carriers, from the left. These behemoths stick to the inside, overtaking lane as lighter traffic passes them in the outside lane, often blind to any obstruction in their path. Nowhere in the world will such a practice prevail, where lighter cars full of people and families make a dangerous attempt to pass heavy vehicles on the outside. My impression of truck drivers as the safest, and the most patient drivers is fast diminishing. Nothing can be more dangerous than to have a 40 ft. tractor-trailer and a ODC car carrier stick to the inside lane. Neither do the authorities seem to bother, neither do the drivers seem to understand. An instant recipe for fatal accidents, those who die become mere statistics.

Nowhere in the world will such a practice prevail, where lighter cars full of people and families make a dangerous attempt to pass heavy vehicles on the outside.”