Motorists urge Kolkata traffic police to increase visibility of guard rails at night
Times of India | 28 March 2025
12 Kolkata: Motorists in Kolkata hope the traffic police will take cognisance of the Calcutta High Court order on the illumination of barricades and guard rails, and take measures to address the hazard on city roads.
Travelling at night on many city roads has become a veritable nightmare for motorists due to the random positioning of guard rails without reflective tapes or blinking red lights to caution drivers of the obstacle ahead.
While the cops used to position a single guard rail in the middle of the road, leaving just enough space for cars to squeeze through either side, traffic police has recently started placing guard rails next to each other to block off all but one lane of the road for vehicles to squeeze through. However, with no standard operating procedure on where and how the barricades are to be placed, individual traffic guards, and in several cases civic volunteers attached to traffic police, place them in different positions as they deem fit.
There have been multiple instances of accidents caused by the poor visibility of guard rails at night. Earlier this month, two persons, including a six-year-old girl, were injured in Kasba late at night when a motorcyclist heading along Rash Behari Connector towards Gariahat lost control after braking hard on spotting a guard rail late. Both the rider and the child were injured in the mishap. A week later, a woman was run over while alighting from a bus on Jessore Road when the truck that had to veer sharply to negotiate a guard rail placed in the middle of the road bumped into the bus, causing it to lurch foward and run over the passenger.
Driving through Kasba Connector, AJC Bose Road, and several other major roads of Kolkata at night can be exasperating with guard rails that are barely visible being placed in the middle of the road. "I have had several instances of close shaves after having to brake hard and change lanes to avoid hitting guard rails," said entrepreneur Sumit Ghosh.
Road engineers said there were solar-powered flashing lights available that could be installed on guard rails to warn motorists of the hazard at night. These devices, which get charged during the day, can be switched on when the guard rails are placed in the middle of the road at night.
The situation is no different on APC Road and Central Avenue where guard rails are placed at multiple crossings along the entire length.
Cops, while insisting on the requirement of guard rails to reduce speed and therefore accidents at night, acknowledged that their poor visibility could be a hazard. They also had no answer to road experts repeatedly pointing out that anything that is placed on the road to reduce the speed of vehicles, apart from a surface hindrance such as a speed breaker, should ideally be made of plastic, fibre, or vulcanised rubber.
Road experts cite a directive of the Indian Road Congress in this regard that makes it mandatory for the authorities to warn drivers about the presence of a speed breaker at least 100 m ahead. "On Kolkata roads, there is no warning whatsoever. Even speed breakers or bumps are not painted black and white to warn motorists," complained techie Raunak Roychowdhury.
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