Covelong Link Road along Kelambakkam backwaters: danger lurks not just on the bends

This section of the Covelong Link Road tracing the Kelambakkam backwaters is hugely narrow but that does not deter motorists from speeding. A majority of road users hitting the link road having no business to transact on this section of the road (exceptions include those in the fish-and-crab catching business, staff at the ICAR-CIBA Kovalam Experimental Station, and anglers and birders and other Nature enthusiasts without a clear-cut agenda). Adding to the risk, this section sports some bends. To alleviate the danger arising from the road’s design, short medians of metal barricades have now been grouted into the road at these high-risk bends, making sure vehicular traffic moving in one direction does not spill over into the path of the other. This is just what the doctor ordered for preventing head-on collisions. But the traffic planners have failed to turn over the prescription sheet and read the additional instruction the doctor has scrawled on the other side. The helpfulness of having these grouted metal medians in the slightly wider straights as well to blunt the natural deadly edge this road possesses. Accidents are equally likely, if not more so, on the slightly wider straights, where motorists can let their guard down, unlike while they are on then bends.

Parade before your mind’s eye roads that seem to have been “carefully crafted” for head-on collisions. That might sound morbid, but on certain roads, at least certain sections of them, that thought cannot be avoided; motorists moving in opposite directions seem to be charging at each other. 

In the heart of the city, motorists might find that unsavoury thought sneaking in on them, while navigating certain sections of Kamarajar Salai (Beach Road hugging the Marina), particularly while Father Time has entered the liminal zone between late evening and early night. 

Anyone accustomed to taking the Kelambakkam-Covelong Link Road would find themselves thinking along the same lines while navigating the section of the road that traces the Kelambakkam backwaters and its adjacent patches. 

This section of the link road is hugely narrow but that does not deter motorists from speeding. A majority of road users hitting the link road having no business to transact on this section of the road (exceptions include those in the fish-and-crab catching business, staff at the ICAR-CIBA Kovalam Experimental Station, and anglers and birders and other Nature enthusiasts without a clear-cut agenda). Adding to the risk, this section sports some bends. To alleviate the danger arising from the road’s design, short medians of metal barricades have now been grouted into the road at these high-risk bends, making sure vehicular traffic moving in one direction does not spill over into the path of the other. This is just what the doctor ordered for preventing head-on collisions. But the traffic planners have failed to turn over the prescription sheet and read the additional instruction the doctor has scrawled on the other side. The helpfulness of having these grouted metal medians in the slightly wider straights as well to blunt the natural deadly edge this road possesses. Accidents are equally likely, if not more so, on the slightly wider straights, where motorists can let their guard down, unlike while they are on then bends.