Who’ll put brakes on speedbreakers?

NEW DELHI: A stretch of road opposite Pocket 5, Mayur Vihar-I in east Delhi, is waiting for its first major accident.
It has no streetlights and pavements have been dug up for re-laying tiles on either side. And right in the middle of the stretch lies the death-trap: two unilluminated, unmarked neckbreakers, widely known as speedbreakers.
‘‘As it is, driving at night is dangerous with no streetlights on.Those unfamiliar with the area will completely miss the speedbreakers at night,’’ said Aparna Singh, a resident of the area.
This callousness is galling considering that the city has a specific committee to review and recommend speedbreakers, an agency to provide the specifications and civic agencies which are to follow the specifications and construct accordingly. And there are plenty more to come, with the traffic police recently recommending 52 of them, mostly in south Delhi.
Speedbreakers may be a necessary evil, but they are rarely constructed according to specifications.
The Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) says this is how a speedbreaker should be:
• A parabola, with a base of 3 to 3.6 metres and height of about 10 centimetres at the centre (that is, the highest point of the parabola). This means the parabola has a gradient of about 2 per cent.
• The speedbreaker should be painted and illuminated.
The CRRI says more than 80 per cent speedbreakers in Delhi don’t meet these standards.
CRRI’s traffic and transportation head T S Reddy said the method of implementing the concept of breaking speed is erroneous and can cause serious accidents.
“Ideally, in residential colonies, there should be one small speedbreaker after every 150-200 feet,’’ Reddy said.
But, there has been a proliferation of poorly-made speedbreakers. ‘‘Speedbreakers come up according to residents’ personal convenience. And they serve more to break axles than speed,’’ said N K Bhatia, deputy secretary of the Indian Roads Congress.
Residents angry about rash driving have their revenge on motorists by constructing speedbreakers which can damage a vehicle.
This is why so many of Delhi’s speedbreakers are unauthorised, says MCD engineer-in-chief Deepak Mukhopadhyay. ‘‘It’s useless to demolish them because they are rebuilt the next day.’’