The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Tuesday claimed before the High Court of Karnataka that Indian Road Congress (IRC) standards were not mandatory for construction of flyovers and the standards specified could be altered depending upon local requirement.

BBMP’s counsel made this submission before a Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice H.G. Ramesh and Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar during the hearing on a public interest litigation petition challenging the legality of construction of a steel flyover at Shivananda Circle in the city for various factors, including for not complying to the IRC standards.

Justifying the 4.5 m vertical clearance below the proposed flyover at the Shivananda junction, it was contended on behalf of the BBMP that a minimum vertical clearance of 5.5 m as per the IRC standards cannot be provided as the existing railway underpass nearby does not permit increasing the length of the flyover to provide 5.5 m vertical clearance and the corresponding gradient.

Meanwhile, counsel for the petitioner claimed that construction of a flyover at Shivananda Circle has no logic when the IRC standards cannot be applied keeping in mind the safety of road users, and cited a report, given by an expert on road engineering to the petitioners, in support of this claim.

However, counsel for the BBMP claimed that the flyover would not cause any hardship to road users or motorists, and added that the design of the flyover had been certified by experts from the Indian Institute of Science.

The Bench adjourned hearing till Wednesday while stating that the court was anxious to know whether allowing the flyover sans IRC standards would be in public interest or not. The court asked counsel for the BBMP and the petitioner about possibility of securing a report from an independent expert about the safety aspect of the present design of the flyover.

The much hyped storm water drainage system set up in Kozhikode over a year ago seems to have had little effect, going by the flooding witnessed in the heart of the city, following heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday. Mavoor Road and Stadium Junction, two main points where storm water drains were set up, were left inundated in the rain.

Traffic hit

Traffic was disrupted across the city due to heavy rain and flooding. People were seen wading through water overflowing from drains.

The Rs. 15-crore storm water drain project was expected solve the constant waterlogging in the heart of the city.

Waterlogging in the mofussil bus stand junction has always been a headache for the Kozhikode Corporation and the traffic police for decades. The storm water drain project was executed specifically to solve this problem.

The 50-year-old drainage system in the city was unable to handle the volume of water during the monsoon. New pipelines, designed in consultation with the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, with enough capacity to accommodate the water, were laid under the roads as part of the project.

Road work

It took the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP) almost two years to dig up half of Mavoor Road and several other roads in the city to implant pipes that could carry the rainwater straight to Connolly Canal. The junction was partially blocked in April 2016 for almost a month to construct the connection between the separate pipelines.

The drainage system has been connected to the existing drain under the Nayanar Flyover so that water could be discharged into the Connolly Canal near Arayadathupalam.

Work on the storm water drain was completed by the end of 2016, but parts of the city continued to be flooded, during the onset of monsoon in June.

Mayor Thottathil Raveendran had clarified at the time that the corporation was in the process of clearing the silt from the drains and that it would be opened into the Connolly Canal the next day. “Soon the drain will be functional and there will be no more waterlogging on Mavoor Road,” the Mayor had said.

However, the situation continues to be the same three months later.