Our roads during the monsoon
By: KSS Pillai
The school-going children used to have a regular problem in Kerala when the monsoon rains started. The schools there opened after the summer vacation at the beginning of June, and the sky became dark with clouds as they prepared for school. It started raining as they exited their homes in the morning.
Since folding umbrellas were not common, some carried banana leaves to protect themselves from rains. They usually attended the first class of the new school year in wet dresses. The condition remains almost the same, though most students now carry umbrellas.
Although the arrival of the monsoon rains is generally welcomed after the severe summer heat, many get worried, too. They know what to expect when there is a steady increase in rain in different parts of the world over the last few years, creating problems.
There are frequent reports of cloudbursts in different parts of the country, resulting in flash floods and landslides. The problem is severe in the Himalayan states whose main income is from tourism.
Hotel bookings are cancelled, and the usual tourist haunts are deserted. People who depend on tourists for their survival are rendered jobless. The economy of the state concerned is in turmoil. Farmers are in dire straits due to the loss of their crops, and the demand for a steep rise in the central aid grows.
Even our metropolitan cities are inundated after a heavy rain, mainly due to inadequate pre-monsoon preparation. Trains cancel their trips as railway tracks are flooded, leaving commuters stranded. Roads look like rivers, and there are many cases of people falling into open manholes while walking along the road, losing their lives.
The number of road accidents in our country is high even during non-monsoon months, as there are many cases of infringement of traffic rules. Many vehicles on the roads are driven by underage youngsters. A visit to any school will find several bikes used by the young students. Drunken driving is another cause of serious accidents.
While driving through a stretch of roads recently, I was amused to see signboards limiting the speed to thirty kilometers. The road’s condition was such that driving at that speed would require extraordinary skills.
Pot-holed roads with their surface resembling that of the moon are common after a few rains. Recently, I saw a group of people shouting slogans around banana plants planted in water-filled potholes on the road. At another place, people were agitating against tolls for using even dangerously ill-kept roads. This is happening in a country where certain stretches of highways that connect important cities are kept in top condition.
Some states have good roads around the year, even in villages, while others have notorious ones. It is a common belief that a major part of the contractor’s fee goes to the pockets of corrupt officials, resulting in the sorry state of roads. The heavy rains of the monsoon season wash away parts of the road and leave the remaining areas full of potholes.
In some parts of the country, it takes years for some stretches of highways to be completed. Also, there are many unlit stretches, resulting in serious accidents at night when the lives of people, some of them the only breadwinners, are lost.
Human beings are not the sole sufferers of bad roads. Many parts of vehicles like tyres and the suspension system, are damaged, making people hesitant to take out their expensive cars during the rainy season.
In many countries, the public transport system is well-maintained, and people use it to commute between their homes and other places. Our suburban trains and city buses are overcrowded, and their service lacks many basic facilities. As a result, there are cases of rich families where individuals take a separate car to the workplace.
The bad roads lead to delays in the movement of goods, an increase in fuel consumption and pollution, and the disappearance of essential goods from shops.
It is an irony that while some people pray for an early beginning of the monsoon season, others pray for its end.
(The author is a retired professor of English. A regular contributor to ‘The Kashmir Vision’, his articles and short stories have appeared in several national and international publications)
