Construction Trucks Spilling Red Mud on Road Hazardous to Motorists, Especially When It Rains

Construction Trucks Spilling Red Mud on Road Hazardous to Motorists, Especially When It Rains

 Mangaluru: Red Mud spilled on the road by construction trucks can be a serious health and safety hazard as it can create slippery conditions for cars and other vehicles, especially two-wheelers, causing them to to skid or even crash. And we are seeing this issue in the City, at all the construction sites, and no action has been taken either by Mangaluru City Corporation, nor the Traffic Police. Probably there could be a hand-in-hand deal between the builder/contractor and these two admin bodies. One such construction site which is making a mess with the trucks spilling red mud on the road, and making it slippery when it rains, is the site in front of Domino’s Pizza/Coastal chicken, in Bendorewell, Mangaluru.

In the last two days, there have been quite a few two-wheelers skidding on these wet muddy road, and since none of these motorists are complaining, the road situation is getting from bad to worse. Once a clean road has turned into a muddy road- and thanks to these trucks for spilling the mud, and also the mud stuck in between the tyres, which is creating all the problems. and this report is for the kind consideration of MCC, Traffic Police- and also the builder/contractor, to rectify the issue soon, so that no accidents happen in future.

In addition to the numerous problems we already have on road and road works in the City, this report is to bring attention to the huge amount of mud and sand scattered on this stretch of Bendorewell road, and also at other areas in front of construction sites, during rainy season. Dust is bad to our health in many ways, and hazardous to riders on the road. The entire city is dusty and muddy and in some way it adds to the stress of the public and motorists. Somehow people building a new house or apartment or commercial complex, seem to believe that the footpath in front of their construction site belongs to them and can be used for storing material and spill mud. This is really annoying as usually makes the footpath completely unusable and damages it – and usually they don’t bother fixing it when the construction is over. It also often means that they have violated the regulations.

Mangaluru was never a dusty city- thanks to its tree cover and independent houses. But now that’s no longer the case with the massacre of trees and the large scale construction projects coming up all over the place. In most countries you have to pay for using public space or for the authorities to clean up the area you mess up. Even when you are granted permission to use the sidewalk etc for your construction you have to make arrangements for a temporary sidewalk and amenities to be put up. If you mess up the costs are so high that the builders themselves clean up the streets after every truck that comes in and out with building material. They even clean the tyres of the trucks leaving the site so they don’t have to pay for the truck messing up the entire city on its way. But that’s not happening in India, including our Smart City- Mangaluru!

This topic of mud and dust on the road is one of the most important, and sadly, most neglected topics. And when the clean city roads are dirtied by these trucks hauling construction site mud, it gets one’s dress totally dirty and dusty. This topic is more important than it looks at first glance, and deserves a lot of attention by the concerned officials.Dust and mud accumulated on city roads play a big role in degrading quality of lives in our city. These days we are not even seeing the cleaning/sweeping MCC truck- and therefore mud and dust is left on the streets unattended posing health issues for public.

I have seen multiple times a perfectly laid out road being damaged by heavily loaded lorries and trucks that ply on the road. Majority of these lorries are laden with construction material like Mud, Cement, Sand, Jelly material etc. I have seen right in front of me so many lorries loaded excessively spilling their loaded material on good quality roads when they go on a speed breaker or when they apply break – just like that. Many times I have had to break suddenly to avoid the spray of sand and jelly! Any bike riding citizen will agree with me in Mangaluru that we wear helmets more to protect ourselves from the dust and pollution caused by those dreadful lorries rather than to protect our heads!

Once I saw a truck drop part of its mud load onto the road and it went off. It was not a small quantity, huge lump of mud that could fill one auto rickshaw trailer! In the rainy season, nothing else is required to make the road more dangerous. Empty trucks are the worst… they have the residue of the unloaded stuff (t and they go at such full speeds contaminating the entire route on their ride!! The worst nightmares are during rains!! Can someone who has got the authority and the wherewithal (we can not take the law into our hands), act?

As per defined standard procedures, the tyres of the trucks laden with mud need to be sprayed with water, before they enter the road-but unfortunately that’s not happening here. Dug up for pipeline replacement, for Smart City projects, and for laying underground electricity cables, and at new construction sites, Mangaluru’s roads look the worse for wear with multiple infrastructure projects under way. The city has become a dust bowl and the dry/wet weather is only exacerbating these conditions, prompting people in several areas to term it the city’s “dust age”. The dust and debris from the ongoing, completed, and incomplete projects are also a health hazard.

Hope the concerned authorities mentioned in this report will do the needful in rectifying this issue at the earliest, for the benefit of motorists and pedestrians.