Why motorists are bumping along Colombo roads at snail’s pace
Constant excavation and repairs by various authorities have compounded the appalling conditions on roads in Colombo city for the millions of people who live and work there.
Many roads are scarred with craters and potholes that have filled with water following the recent heavy showers. Peak-hour traffic is made worse by manic driving as cars dodge around these holes.
Shoddy road repairs make the surface uneven. Recently, a motorcyclist lost his life on the Kochchikade- Mattakkuliya road, which is carpeted on one side but not on the other, causing an odd elevation on half the road.
“We waste hours stuck in traffic on these poorly maintained roads ,” said Shenaka Cooray, 40, the manager of an auto-detailing and service-product retail store. “A 5km trip now takes an hour on the road sometimes as we are forced to detour and use shortcuts. This is detrimental to our business.”
Asirwadam Manojkumar, 31, a trishaw driver based near the Colombo Port, avoids some hires because he loses more than he gains on certain roads.
“Sometimes I don’t take hires to Dematagoda. The fare is only about Rs. 300 but I have to burn a lot of fuel and waste time on the road,” he complained.
“I also don’t go towards Mattakkuliya where the roads are just horrible. Our vehicle sockets become damaged going on these roads. Most of the roads in Colombo 13, 14 and 15 are in this sorry state. Some have been neglected for over seven years. The authorities dig up the roads for various reasons and leave them just like that.”
Sivaguru Dushan, proprietor of a roadside spare part and repair shop, said water collecting on the roads gushes into his shop when it rains hard. “Customers are reluctant to come to my shop as the roads become flooded,” he said.
“The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) wants to rebuild these roads,” said L.R.L. Wickramaratne, the Deputy Commissioner ( engineering services) of the CMC, “but there are many repairs being carried out on pipelines these days by the Water Board, which require the excavation of the roads. These pipelines are more than 30 years old and need replacing and repairing.
“The Water Board plans to mend the pipelines across the city, so almost all the roads will have to be dug. We cannot do a complete refurbishment of the roads until they finish their work. The moment the pipelines of a road are fixed, we start carpeting it,” he explained.
“We cannot do this work on roads whose underground pipelines haven’t been attended to yet as it will be a waste of public money when the Water Board digs up the road, and we have to redo the thing.”
Responding to concerns about motorists’ safety on badly patched, uneven roads, Mr. Wickramaratne said this happens when there is piecemeal fixing of pipelines and electricity cables. “I don’t know if it would be safer to leave the road unrepaired until the whole street is ready to be carpeted but many residents ask us to fix the roads as soon as the work is done by the water and electricity boards,” he said.
He said motorists should exercise extra caution on these roads until they were fully refurbished.
“We were reluctant to give permission to start this excavations around the city all at once but it had to be done,” said Riza Zarook, a United National Party council member who is also the chairman of the Road Development and Traffic committee at the CMC.
He gave an assurance that the council would carpet any road that was in a battered state. “If you tell me the name of a road, I will see to it that it is attended to as soon as possible,” he said. He did not specify the need to wait until the work of the Water Board was completed.
Council member Milinda Rajapaksha of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna berated ruling party council members for their lack of coordination with the authorities who carried out repairs that required road digging.
“Even though they are from the same party they have constant fights with the Urban Development Authority and maintain poor communication with the Water Board,” he alleged. “This lack of coordination is why you see roads left dug open even after the pipeline or electricity cable work is long finished. This government has also done remarkably little to follow up on the previous regime’s city beautification project.”
Mr. Zarook rejected these accusations. “Our relations with the UDA are perfectly all right,” he said. “We have meetings with them when required. The Water Board also maintains contact with us. All excavations require our prior approval and they conform. Occasionally there are short delays in informing us when their work is done but these are neither frequent nor of great significance.”
The Deputy Commissioner said the only problem with the Water Board was that its contractors delayed work and didn’t work to schedule. “There are no communication problems,” he said, adding that the council had no problems with raising funds for projects.