Steel City roads, islands to be redesigned to ensure safety

Commuters, especially those riding a bike or other two-wheelers can look forward to  a safe ride in the city. Tata Steel subsidiary, Jusco has decided to redesign and channelize roads to make safer for the people.

The company has also added dividers on main roads to make it one-way and ensure safety. The divider ( or central verge having flowering plants ) has been constructed for about 1.25 Km stretch of the road connecting the Mango bridge with the Jubilee Park roundabout on the Sakchi end.

All major traffic junctions and mishap-prone areas, witnessing over 50,000 vehicles daily, have been selected for the change, expected to be complete by 2019.

"As per suggestions given by our consultant we have decided to change the road designs of all mishap-prone stretches. While work is complete on most of the stretches, the rest will be ready by the year-end," said a Jusco official.

The mishap-prone spots identified by the district administration are Marine Drive, Kadma-Sonari Link Road, Kharkai Link Road, Bistupur), aridih, RD Tata (Golmuri), NML (Agrico), Nildih (Telco), Tubes Division (Burmamines) and Dimna Road in Mango and Bhuiyandih Road.

Some of the stretches where work has been completed are RD Tata Roundabout, Inner Circle Road and Straight Mile Road (Northern Town to Sakchi) Subarnarekha Link Road (Jubilee Park-Mango bridge), Sakchi Boulevard Road, Kadani Road (Tinplate-Baridih). Work is underway at Outer Circle Road (Kharkai Link Road to Kadma), Gopal Maidan to Adityapur Bridge, Agrico Main Road-Bhuiyandih and Bistupur-Jugsalai Road.

"It is a part of our road projects. There will be a dedicated tunnel for underground cables apart from drains on both sides of the road," confirmed a Jusco official.

Notably, frequent mishaps, including fatal ones take place on that stretch of the Subarnarekha Link Road ( also referred to as the Old Court Road ) in the absence of a road divider.

The stretch of the road, especially near the Hati - Ghora Temple and Gandhi Ghat  witnesses most number of mishaps due to a steep curve and absence of a divider.

Several outfits working on traffic awareness had also raised the issue in the past and had demanded construction of a divider particularly near the Hati-Ghora Temple to check road mishaps.  

DSP (Traffic ) Vivekananda Thakur said the utility company started redesigning work of the roads after consulting. "The dividers on that stretch of the road will ensure safety of the riders. The roads assume importance as it is a link road to the main city and that a sizeable number of heavy vehicles also travels on that road on a daily basis carrying raw-materials and finished from the local  industries based in Jamshedpur, " he said.   

Jamshedpur witnessed as many as 304 accidents during which 223 people died and 205 were injured. This year between January and April, there have been 103 accidents with 52 deaths and 70 injured.