Some suggestions to ease traffic blocks in Kandana

I am a resident of Kandana and this is about the traffic situation during the festive season just past.

The traffic build-up was really bad, with the Church feast attracting thousands of people from various parts of the country who had come to get the blessings of St. Sebastian. Whilst the Kandana police was out there during peak hours, there was no real effort taken to curb traffic offenders. A good example is buses, three wheelers and trucks driving on the right side of the road and adding to the congestion (see attached photo taken around noon).

There are bikes and three wheelers which get onto the pave- ments even close to the yellowline crossings (for example near St. Anthony’s Food Kandana) before the Church road, and the poor pedestrians have no place to walk. This is an area where there are lots of elderly people walking to buy their day-to-day requirements and it is sad to see that these drivers don’t respect even such senior citizens.

A few suggestions which could help this congestion: 1. Increase the number of traffic

officers 2. Man the Church road Junction at all times (peak hours) and not only the main junction. This is totally ignored at times (even a traffic light system at

some stage will help). 3. Have a few additional mobile officers around the pavement areas on the seaside during peak hours 4. Charge offenders using the wrong side of the road, pavements, etc. so that at least they will not repeat it 5. Put barriers near crossings (on the pavement) to prevent vehicles from using the pavement, for example iron poles up to say around 3 feet. This may be long term but is very essential. Hope we will see some improvement of this congestion in the coming days/weeks. Ishan de Silva

Kandana