Remove billboards in two days, district administration says

KOCHI: The district administration has given the ultimatum to advertisement agencies to remove billboards within two days. This has come at a time when authorities, including the Kochi corporation, had failed to remove unauthorized hoardings in the city.
The decision was taken at the road safety council meeting held on Friday. Collector P I Sheik Pareeth said civil and criminal cases would be initiated against those who fail to remove billboards within the stipulated time.The meeting also decided to allocate Rs 2 lakh to police for putting traffic regulations in place at Edappally Junction and to enforce lane traffic.
"The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) will be asked to remove its transformer at Edappally Junction," said the collector. Meanwhile, a safety audit conducted by the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) has found that the Seaport-Airport Road poses a major threat to motorists and pedestrians. The road lacks basic safety features such as blinkers and road markings. The Public Works Department (PWD) has been asked to take immediate steps to ensure safety.
The state government has already approved Rs 200 crore for four-laning the Seaport-Airport Road. Of this, Rs 25 crore will be used for completing the four-laning of the stretch between HMT Junction and Bharat Mata College.
The road safety council also decided to install electronic traffic signals at Thevara, Edappally toll, Shenoys, Padma, Kalamassery, Aryas and Palarivattom SN junctions. Zebra crossings will be marked near 30 schools in the city. Over the last six months, 76 persons have died in road accidents in the city. Of this, 60% were pedestrians.
"If proper signals and zebra crossings are put in place, accidents can be brought down significantly," said deputy police commissioner V M Mohammed Rafeeq.
Ernakulam RTO B J Antony, RTO enforcement officer K R Raveendranathan, joint RTO Adarsh Kumar Nair, assistant police commissioner P P Shams, PWD executive engineer P P Benny and RBDCK deputy general manager Abdul Salam also attended the road safety meeting.