Indian Roads Thread

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 08 Feb 2013 20:59

Sachin, you will like this one. http://www.mathrubhumi.com/zoomin/artic ... index.html

That is the new Container terminal road going under the rail line to the terminal under development. It can potentially be made into a 4+4 lane road and it crosses both NH-17 and NH-47.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 08 Feb 2013 21:11

RamaY wrote:The land around, especially in the pic area is anywhere between Rs5-20crores per acre right now. This place is about 5-6Km from Gachibowli and the building are coming from that side. apartments are in the range of Rs 50-100L.

When the road was built, the lands were not that expensive though -Approx Rs 10-50L per acre.

There is an upside to price escalation, only 'modern' structures will get built even if it means a lot of people will get priced out.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 09 Feb 2013 10:02

Bade wrote:Sachin, you will like this one............
That is the new Container terminal road going under the rail line to the terminal under development. It can potentially be made into a 4+4 lane road and it crosses both NH-17 and NH-47.

I think the Container Terminal is already up and running. The only problem was that because of some silly cabotage rules big ships were not allowed into this terminal. But that I guess is changed. The current railway bridge is also single line, dont know if Railways had made it in such way that doubling can be done at a later stage.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 16 Feb 2013 10:06

Ennore port proposes rail-track on Chennai ORR - BusinessLine

If everything goes by plan, trains would run right in the middle of Chennai’s Outer Ring Road (ORR), with vehicular movement on either side of the track in a couple of years. This railway line will connect Ennore port with Nemilicheri, and eventually connect the Chennai-Bangalore rail.

The 62-km ORR from Vandalur to Minjur is 125 m in width. A provision of 25 m had been made in the middle of the road for a possible railway link. The Ennore Port Ltd has proposed to the Tamil Nadu Government to use this stretch of land to construct a rail link to connect the port with the Bangalore rail link.

“We seized the opportunity to put up the rail link,” Senthil Kumar, General Manager, EPL.

“Since EPL is going to be the major beneficiary, we are ready to invest nearly Rs 750 crore in the project, which will connect the port and the Bangalore railway line.

“We will utilise a portion the Rs 1,000-crore Bond Issue and also seek financial assistance from banks,” he told Business Line.

On Tuesday, top EPL officials met senior bureaucrats of the Tamil Nadu Government on the project. “They have evinced interest in the project, and were surprised that nobody came up with such a proposal so far,” he earlier told at a trade meet organised by the port in association with the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

EPL plans to tie up with the State Government to launch it as a joint venture; the Government will assess the project soon, he said.

The Rs 1,000-crore phase II project of ORR starts at Nemilicheri and crosses the Chennai-Bangalore railway line and Chennai Tiruvallur High Road. It passes through Mittanamallee, Morai, Attanthangal, Padiyanallur and Kandigai villages to end at Minjur, which is contiguous with the Ennore port.

A 17-km road from Vandalur to Nemilicheri, part of the first phase, is ready for use.

The ORR will connect Vandalur on NH 45 in the south with Minjur on Tiruvottiyur Ponneri Panchetti Road, north of Chennai. The alignment crosses existing railway lines at Vandalur and Nemilichery and major rivers of Adyar Cooum and Kosathalayar.

Kumar said that the utilisation of the Chennai-Bangalore railway line is 148 per cent. Due to this congestion, goods train are often sidelined to make way for passenger trains. This causes delay in freight movement. Currently, cargo from the port goes via Athipattu on the Chennai-Kolkata line to the Bangalore railway line.

The EPL in its proposal said it will bypass Chennai and use the ORR to connect to west of Avadi and proceed to the Bangalore rail line.

Land acquisition will not be a problem as 89 per cent of the land for the second phase of ORR has been acquired.

Kumar said that the Government of India has recently permitted non-government entities such ports, mining and steel companies to lay railway lines. The rail operations will, however, rest with the Railways. “This directive is very timely for us,” he said.

By the end of the 12th Plan, the port’s annual capacity could more than double to 66 million tonnes of cargo a year.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 16 Feb 2013 16:09

Is this the Hyderabad ORR or Chennai ORR?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 17 Feb 2013 11:59

Huge work in progress from hosur krishnagiri to chennai to six lane the highway, build bridges and improve service roads.

First proactive move i have seen to build big when time is available.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 17 Feb 2013 17:25

^That work on NH46 has been going on for about a year now. The traffic density on this important NH is growing high. The Japan-funded new alignment is also likely to start by next year, apart from the industrial corridor between Bengaluru and Chennai. The Chennai ORR, whose report I have posted just above, is also Japan funded. Apart from this ORR, Chennai is also planning another ORR starting from somewhere near Mahabalipuram and connecting Ennore port.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 17 Feb 2013 20:11

Near ambur town there a range of rocky hills parallel to the highway along the south.
A war of jesus and mashallah is going on along the skyline there. On every rocky face people have gone up and painted either the crescent or cross in white paint...so on rock faces that would need good eqpt to climb down off. Usually its alternate signs....this war continues for miles and miles near ambur.

Also deeper in the interior of arcot i saw hills with big crosses implanted on the top...kind of taking off on old hindu custom of building temples atop steep hills, steeper the better. Muslims were not big on it, preferring to keep the flock close and perimeter tight.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 04 Mar 2013 14:27

posted in right thread. thanks prasanth

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/376309/wat ... truck.html

That Lady Biker was lucky to survive her stupidity. It also seems to be faulty traffic signal arrangement. Straight and Right should not be allowed at the same time. There is no lane discipline and speed limit at junctions are not followed. Everyone seems to be in a hurry. The driver of the truck might not have noticed the Biker coming in front from his left.

No wonder, 90% of bikers are stupid and of all accidents bikers have most fatality rate. Most reult of head injury due to non wearing of helmet and others like this one. She is lucky this time.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 04 Mar 2013 14:39

chaanakya wrote:posted in right thread. thanks prasanth

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/376309/wat ... truck.html

That Lady Biker was lucky to survive her stupidity. It also seems to be faulty traffic signal arrangement. Straight and Right should not be allowed at the same time. There is no lane discipline and speed limit at junctions are not followed. Everyone seems to be in a hurry. The driver of the truck might not have noticed the Biker coming in front from his left.

No wonder, 90% of bikers are stupid and of all accidents bikers have most fatality rate. Most reult of head injury due to non wearing of helmet and others like this one. She is lucky this time.

Such stupid behavior is rather common at all traffic lights in Bangalore. Morons turn whenever and wherever they like.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 05 Mar 2013 01:21

Singha wrote: On every rocky face people have gone up and painted either the crescent or cross in white paint...

this is going on for decades now.. i guess some stream lining is required in terms of religious symbols and practices viz freedom of expression and places of hoardings and displays.

this must be banned unless it is authorized to show some direction to a temple or religious place.

for example, someone kept a cross here in massan construction pile, and the next few weeks there was cop car placed on observation. that is called implementable solutions!

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 20 Mar 2013 00:07

Bus Falls Off Bridge in India, Killing at Least 37
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/03 ... ident.html

NEW DELHI (AP) — A bus packed with passengers crashed through a guard rail and fell off a bridge in western India early Tuesday, killing at least 37 people and injuring another 15, police said.The overnight bus was carrying passengers from the beach resort state of Goa to Mumbai when it crashed in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, said Mahendra Singh Pardeshi, a police official present at the site. The area is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Mumbai.The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.The driver was among those injured in the pre-dawn accident.The bus had a capacity of 55 passengers, but Pardeshi said it was not known how many people were on board.Early, blurred video if the accident showed that the bus broke through the guard rail on the bridge and fell several meters to the bank of the Jagbudi River below.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 20 Mar 2013 01:13

Singha wrote:Near ambur town there a range of rocky hills parallel to the highway along the south.
A war of jesus and mashallah is going on along the skyline there. On every rocky face people have gone up and painted either the crescent or cross in white paint...so on rock faces that would need good eqpt to climb down off. Usually its alternate signs....this war continues for miles and miles near ambur.

Also deeper in the interior of arcot i saw hills with big crosses implanted on the top...kind of taking off on old hindu custom of building temples atop steep hills, steeper the better. Muslims were not big on it, preferring to keep the flock close and perimeter tight.

Perhaps time for an environmental NGO that works against painting natural aspects/scenery. It may not be secular though.

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 20 Mar 2013 12:18

Jhujar wrote:Bus Falls Off Bridge in India, Killing at Least 37
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/03 ... ident.html

NEW DELHI (AP) — A bus packed with passengers crashed through a guard rail and fell off a bridge in western India early Tuesday, killing at least 37 people and injuring another 15, police said.The overnight bus was carrying passengers from the beach resort state of Goa to Mumbai when it crashed in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, said Mahendra Singh Pardeshi, a police official present at the site. The area is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Mumbai.The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.The driver was among those injured in the pre-dawn accident.The bus had a capacity of 55 passengers, but Pardeshi said it was not known how many people were on board.Early, blurred video if the accident showed that the bus broke through the guard rail on the bridge and fell several meters to the bank of the Jagbudi River below.

2 reasons

overload and tired driver

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 20 Mar 2013 13:50

Singha wrote:Near ambur town there a range of rocky hills parallel to the highway along the south.
A war of jesus and mashallah is going on along the skyline there. On every rocky face people have gone up and painted either the crescent or cross in white paint...so on rock faces that would need good eqpt to climb down off. Usually its alternate signs....this war continues for miles and miles near ambur.

Also deeper in the interior of arcot i saw hills with big crosses implanted on the top...kind of taking off on old hindu custom of building temples atop steep hills, steeper the better. Muslims were not big on it, preferring to keep the flock close and perimeter tight.

I've noticed that too. Ambur is a muslim majority area (famous for biriyani). Long back, the hills were left alone. It is the new christian missionary churches that start these kind of stunts. Muslims and Hindus get in on it too. In my village all three groups start blasting the stupid songs from morning to night..very annoying. It was all peace and quiet just 10 years back.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 26 Mar 2013 05:44

Finally travelled the NHAI built highway from Trivandrum to Bangalore via Madurai early this month. The roads are much better than what has been the standard for years, but my little Santro was being rattled by the uneven grade. Is it possible that the base has not settled yet being a new alignment, even if almost 10 yrs old by now.

Shoulders are lacking in most places, leaving little space as safety margin. We did an average of 80-100 kmph as the traffic load was minimal till we hit Krishnagiri and then began the dance with the multi-lane hugging trucks. They are building flyovers at major junctions along this route closer to Hosur, which they should have done at the onset of ABV's highway. But in India we cannot forsee such simple issues even after a multitude of feasibility studies.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 26 Mar 2013 05:58

NH 7? yeah.. first of all they should dramatically change type of road laying for desh.. I am all for pre-constructed compressed RCC blocks laid as roads, and a thin layer of asphalt is good enough. the base would be at least per standards.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 26 Mar 2013 06:11

NH-7 of course. But less said about the NH-47 on my return journey the better. From Salem took the NH-47 to Coimbatore, all was well till we hit the Saravana Palace eatery on the highway. My spirits were up the road till then was not bad and it was getting dark. Hoped to make it to Trichur by midnight. But not so. Soon we had diversions all along. It was difficult to see in the pitch darkness with vehicles coming in the opposite direction with headlights on with high beam. My gelf returned driverji was cussing in chaste mapillah malayalam. This went on for like hours or so we felt. We missed the diversion to Coimbatore bypass, there were hardly any signboards for sure. So we enter Coimbatore town and next is our attempt to get out without being lost. Luckily the driver was relatively familiar. He had been to Coimbatore ten or so years ago, and has a better memory than me. That helped as I was losing my faculties. Made it past the border at stroke of midnight when he stopped to have a strong cut of 'cattan chai'. I woke up when we hit Trichur. The road was rough but I slept off. Trichur to home was done in 30-40 mins, it felt like I was on a US state highway and not on Kerala state road.

If the Coimbatore Bypass NH-47 experience is what awaits National Highways every 5 years of upgrade and maintenance which lasts a year or more, then we are better off with better quality 30m wide state highways.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 26 Mar 2013 06:23

nice to hear that kerala highways felt like us state highways for you. any improvements in the malloo driving habits, as normally especially the bus drivers are real hard, and you have to actually wish good luck once boarded.

TN roads are horrible.. last sept a multi axle a/c bus made me keep throwing up from bangalore to chennai ride.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 26 Mar 2013 06:56

All KL roads are not great for sure. NH-47 part is a joke except for the Trichur-Kochi part, but it is under NHAI anyways.

The Trichur-Kodungallur state road has been in this good condition for almost 5 years now, which is a pleasant surprise. But the NH-17 part is in shambles, better than before but breaks down seasonally.

I also did the Kovalam Bypass from Trivandrum, and the quality of the surface was good too. You can never get a straight alignment in KL for any road so your average speed is not going to be very high unless you drive late in the night.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 26 Mar 2013 10:57

Bade wrote:, all was well till we hit the Saravana Palace eatery on the highway.

There are two Saravana Bhavans. One is at a place Vaikuntam 20kms away from Salem (towards Coimbatore). Then there is another one at Karumathampatti which is near Coimbatore. At this point the four-lane tolled high way is non existant. Constructions activities going on in full swing.

I woke up when we hit Trichur. The road was rough but I slept off.

Perhaps the driver may have taken you through Walayar->Chandra Nagar->Palakkad Town->Mankara->Ottapalam->Shornur route. This road is much better. If he had taken you via the NH47 via Kuthiran hills etc., you may have woken up much before

.

Trichur to home was done in 30-40 mins, it felt like I was on a US state highway and not on Kerala state road.

This would be the new tolled highway between Mannuthi/Paliyekkara and Ernakulam. Various revolutions used to happen on this road because the people don't want to pay the tolls. Now looks like the Che Guevera fans and revolutionary intellectuals have taken a back seat.

Dileep · Post by **Dileep** » 26 Mar 2013 11:41

Sachin, Bade Khan is from the ancient city of Muziris (Kodungalloor for todays folk). He is talking about the state highway from Trichur to Kodungalloor.

Most of the state highways are in good shape here. The lack of rains last year might be the reason. It is the NHs that are in trouble.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 26 Mar 2013 15:16

Looks like Sachin the capitalist convert, limits his Kerala experience to driving on National Highways to make periodic assessments of KL roads under commies and intellectuals.

We the commoners stay on state highways and pocket roads to assess the work of the govermand for the people, by the people onlee.

On a serious note, the eatery was the one closer to Coimbatore, since we did not stop at Salem after leaving Blur, it was non-stop drive. During the drive in from Madurai, we did stop at a Saravana in Salem off the highway a good 1km away from it. My friend who accompanied me had all locations on his GPS. Me being a luddite only use printed maps and back of the envelope calcs to find my way, while in India.

What is this business of state road signs in TN being only in Tamil, not even English. Luckily I had a Tamil passenger from TVM, a close friend, whom we chided endlessly on the myopic attitude displayed by TN authorities. At times it felt that I was in Tamil Elam land in Sri Lanka. Only NH-7 had signage in English.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 26 Mar 2013 19:11

Bade wrote:Looks like Sachin the capitalist convert, limits his Kerala experience to driving on National Highways to make periodic assessments of KL roads under commies and intellectuals.

You can call me a strong anti-commie (or anti-CPI(M), or anti-CPI) and anti-intellectual

. Since you mentioned about the road being as good as a US high way, I thought it would be the four-laned part of NH47.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 26 Mar 2013 20:27

The Dharmapuri-Salem-Kovai-dindigul area is very strong sen-tamil type area. Most sign boards near Chennai and even Madurai area have both Tamil and English. There are sign boards near kanyakumari that are malyalam as well. There are areas with kannada and Telugu signboards near the borders. In munnar I saw many sign boards in Tamil. Tirupati has signboards in Tamil too.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 26 Mar 2013 20:41

There was a bad accident in Kerala near Thiruvan'm yesterday. 7 young people lost their lives.
There must be some callousness at work in India in the transportation sector. Whether it is the actual bus driver( who admittedly is often tired, under pressure or overworked) or the bus company which exerts the pressure to follow tight schedules and the overwork to begin with. In some cases, bus drivers do drive crazily, unnecessarily. Something is wrong when this sort of thing occurs many times each year. What follow up/investigation is done in India? In Canada, if there were just two accidents like this every year, there would be major coverage, and all kinds of reportage, commentary and demand for answers.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 26 Mar 2013 20:58

Theo, I was doing Trivandrum to Madurai via Nagercoil. Once you stepped across from the Kerala border, it all became the single lingua signages. The only malayalam alphabets I saw were in store front names, which usually had names written in English as well like they do on KL side. I am not making this up, this went on till we hit NH-7.

Sriman · Post by **Sriman** » 26 Mar 2013 21:56

Varoon Shekhar wrote:There was a bad accident in Kerala near Thiruvan'm yesterday. 7 young people lost their lives.
There must be some callousness at work in India in the transportation sector. Whether it is the actual bus driver( who admittedly is often tired, under pressure or overworked) or the bus company which exerts the pressure to follow tight schedules and the overwork to begin with. In some cases, bus drivers do drive crazily, unnecessarily. Something is wrong when this sort of thing occurs many times each year. What follow up/investigation is done in India? In Canada, if there were just two accidents like this every year, there would be major coverage, and all kinds of reportage, commentary and demand for answers.

It's a combination of systemic issues in different areas: Driver education, road engineering, enforcement etc. It'll take a while (and a lot of resources) before things improve. I almost got sandwiched between a truck i was overtaking and a private Volvo bus which overtook both of us (with the right side of the bus outside the road close to the divider moat kicking up a lot of dust) on NICE road in Bangalore yesterday. The road was empty in front of us and i was driving at speed limit, so there was absolutely no need for that stunt. Such reckless driving is very common on that road. The number of people with death wish on that road is just unbelievable. And almost all of them are yuppies in sedans and SUVs. I take that road everyday and it's just insane how recklessly people drive on that fairly un-congested road. A lot of people drive at speeds above 90mph in vehicles with no ABS. While that may not seem like much, it is very dangerous because you have lot of trucks/bikes/LCVs driving at as slow as 30mph often side by side. The road access is controlled, but it's really tough to keep the speeds in a narrow band. Trucks are often underpowered/overloaded and are no match for powerful sedans/SUVs. Driver education needs to improve but it'll take time and resources. And despite all these issues, the casualty count on this road isn't very high so i think road engineering is probably the biggest factor (its a dual carriageway). It's still scary though. With more highways becoming dual carriageways, we should hopefully see an improvement. But driver education and enforcement will also need to catch up.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 26 Mar 2013 22:16

sign boards are important if states wanted to be linked with NH ways. It is important we choose more operational language like English in addition to the local language on all public road ways.

Sriman · Post by **Sriman** » 26 Mar 2013 22:24

SaiK wrote:sign boards are important if states wanted to be linked with NH ways. It is important we choose more operational language like English in addition to the local language on all public road ways.

As important as signage is, there are much bigger problems to be tackled before we get there. Lot of NHs with heavy traffic in urban areas are still not dual carriageways, let alone SHs.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 26 Mar 2013 22:38

no doubt.. no way I meant other demote the priorities of important TBDs for desh road ways. I sincerely wish we have factory model setup for road layers, where inter-locking concrete blocks are manufactured at factories, and two rounds of earth leveling and sanding, then place these blocks, top it with asphalt. faster, and the needs of multi lanes too.

another important structures that we often over look is bridge sizes and number of them. we have to build bridges for the future.

Dileep wrote:Sachin, Bade Khan is from the ancient city of Muziris (Kodungalloor for todays folk).

what would be the exact location of muziri place?

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 26 Mar 2013 22:43

"It's a combination of systemic issues in different areas: Driver education, road engineering, enforcement etc. It'll take a while (and a lot of resources) before things improve. I almost got sandwiched between a truck i was overtaking and a private Volvo bus which overtook both of us (with the right side of the bus outside the road close to the divider .."

Sounds right, and the observation of young people driving recklessly is distressing. What's the need or value of it, particularly when there is a real chance of an accident? Incidentally, outside of North America( I haven't really savoured West European driving) it does look like people generally drive crazily. Wonder why? The institutional reason must be the educational and law enforcement factors. Mexico, Nigeria, Romania also have this problem. Incidentally, I finally did make that trip to India, and tried in a few instances to slow the traffic down. I also encountered 3 gestures of courtesy in Chennai and Bangalore, where drivers gave me, a pedestrian, the right of way, by waving. Excellent! It's a start. In New Delhi, one driver, obviously someone not very educated, kept going at the same speed, while I was crossing a road, and he was coming toward me. After he passed, his passenger made an apologetic motion to acknowledge that what his driver did was wrong. Are we slowly but surely( more slowly than surely perhaps) seeing the beginnings of some common courtesy on Indian roads?

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 26 Mar 2013 22:52

I explored the south west quadrant of B'lur for the first time. Roads are wide there with more lane addition possible. Kanakapura road has great potential to widen further and metro line planned all the way up to NICE corridor.

Also traveled on Mysore road diagonally north with hopes of hitting old airport road. Overall not bad with many overpasses built we were near Trinity area till we got lost a bit. Maps in hand did not help much as signages are non-existent and hard to negotiate last minute with volume of city traffic. I was not driving and still difficult. Finally asked a cop, who was very helpful with directions. But implementing that on the ground was not the same. So we got lost again and must have run around that area multiple times in and out of MG rd, Brigade, various circles etc. But finally some bike driver and auto guy and a senior pedestrian helped us to the right path...almost by random walk. The pedestrian was the most helpful in giving correct directions.

Signages are very important. Coimbatore town had good signs English too unlike rural TN, and it made it a little easier to extricate us out of city chakravyuh.

Sriman · Post by **Sriman** » 26 Mar 2013 23:19

Varoon Shekhar wrote: Sounds right, and the observation of young people driving recklessly is distressing. What's the need or value of it, particularly when there is a real chance of an accident? Incidentally, outside of North America( I haven't really savoured West European driving) it does look like people generally drive crazily. Wonder why? The institutional reason must be the educational and law enforcement factors. Mexico, Nigeria, Romania also have this problem.

Apart from driver education and law enforcement, i think NA also has a lot of cheap motorsports infra for youngsters to let some steam off. Law enforcement plays a major role in US, no shortage of ricers and muscle car nuts there.

Varoon Shekhar wrote: Incidentally, I finally did make that trip to India, and tried in a few instances to slow the traffic down. I also encountered 3 gestures of courtesy in Chennai and Bangalore, where drivers gave me, a pedestrian, the right of way, by waving. Excellent! It's a start. In New Delhi, one driver, obviously someone not very educated, kept going at the same speed, while I was crossing a road, and he was coming toward me. After he passed, his passenger made an apologetic motion to acknowledge that what his driver did was wrong. Are we slowly but surely( more slowly than surely perhaps) seeing the beginnings of some common courtesy on Indian roads?

Yes, it's changing but with the cities literally bursting at the seams it's not something that'll change overnight. It's really not easy to drive within the cities while sticking to the rules because of the amount of vehicles and the heterogeneous mixture of vehicles. Within the city the major issue is dealing with the bikers as most of them don't really understand the challenges of driving a bigger vehicle. So you'll see people staying in your blind spots, cutting across quickly, overtaking from the left etc. I've noticed company cab drivers tend to be more disciplined than individual cabbies/tempo travellers, but overall car drivers aren't that big a nuisance.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 27 Mar 2013 05:31

Bade wrote:I explored the south west quadrant of B'lur for the first time. ..The pedestrian was the most helpful in giving correct directions.

Signages are very important. Coimbatore town had good signs English too unlike rural TN, and it made it a little easier to extricate us out of city chakravyuh.

Coming to think of asking directions in KL!!!.. I have experienced this long long moons ago, where is this place.. the pedestrians or shop walas would say, it just around the corner. And one would be finding a corner in a circle like in the surdiji joke. just nearby would be like walking miles and miles.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 27 Mar 2013 05:44

Actually KL interior roads after the tarring, look all the same to me, winding and coiling back or intersecting some other road that you passed earlier. With so many panchayath roads tarred it has become a case of too much connectivity if you do not know the lay of the land. You have four choices from any point to go from A to B with marginal differences in distance.

Does not matter which direction you start with.

Other than the main roads which are (1+0.5) wide, these 0.75 wide roads can be like a maze. My dad's house is only 5 km away from mom's tharavad, yet I lose my way on each occasion, though I admit I do not visit the place frequently. All old landmarks from previous visits change rapidly and all the newcomers to the area are strangers, so usually they would not know either unless you happen to chance upon some extended clan member who got stuck there and never left the place who would recognize family name and appropriate pin code or secret codes with info on family tree are exchanged !

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 27 Mar 2013 06:18

It is high time they use ISRO services for planning and layouts., and for existing road coverage maps.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 27 Mar 2013 07:02

There is also a 'status' problem in the minds of Indian drivers. Bigger vehicles bully smaller vehicles with no regard to 'right of way' or 'road sharing' etc.

Road space is perceived to be a scarce resource that is to be fought for and claimed by showing authority' (look at me i have bigger car and louder horn) etc. As Sriman said, this needs changes in all the factors - training (from the DL issuing stage), awareness of driving and traffic concepts, strict and fair enforcements, improving infrastructure so drivers will migrate to better driving practices etc, better mass rapid transport systems to get more people into buses and trains than personal vehicles etc.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 27 Mar 2013 07:02

Saik, Good idea but it will result in more denudation of green cover, like in Blur plotted developments. I never understood the need to remove all trees in making 20x50 plots, even when not building over it right away.

Most land outside of city limits are classified as garden land (as per KL gazette) with or without road access. This gets some benefits like subsidized electricity for farming. Maybe this is carrot enough to stop conversion to residential. I am not sure being not an expert there. You are allowed to build on garden land with some restrictions on built up area.

I wish for some more regularity, but not the way Blur plots are developed for KL scene. With prices going stratospheric, even Mahabali cannot save its green top forever.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 27 Mar 2013 08:18

he will give his head, anyways no praablum. removing trees especially aged one naturally occurring, is pathetic idea anywhere on the planet. For every tree man removes, 1000 trees needs be planted at least 25 years ahead..especially in tropical regions of the world. first of all, 20x50 plots itself a bad idea. instead of one family living in plots, large cities should provide 20x100 green space in between every 100x100 apt complex with not more than 10 floors each. that way urban planning is better for the population. buildings should have mandatory construction patterns that enables plant climbers on the walls or trellis attached to walls of building, with roof space also utilized for greenery and solar power generation.