Urgently audit safety of underpasses

The tragic drowning of two bank officials in a flooded underpass in Faridabad, Haryana, highlights the appalling state of underpasses in the country and underscores the need for an urgent safety audit of each one of them.

According to media reports, on the night of September 13, the bankers, aged 48 and 26, entered the underpass on their way to Greater Faridabad from their place of work in Gurugram. The water level in the middle of the tunnel was so high that the SUV in which they were travelling stalled and soon submerged in the water.

Today, underpasses are a big part of our expanding road infrastructure. There is an exponential increase in the number of such tunnels to ease traffic congestion. However, these beautiful underpasses, with their walls decorated with murals and paintings, can become death traps in the absence of adequate measures to prevent flooding.

On August 26, 35 passengers travelling in a private bus from Jodhpur to Rajkot had a narrow escape when their vehicle got stranded in the flooded Parimal underpass in Ahmedabad — fire brigade personnel rescued all of them in time. There was a similar incident in Nizamabad on August 19, when a Telangana state road transport bus got trapped inside an inundated railway underpass. Earlier, on June 28, it was a close call for passengers of a bus stranded in the flooded Kodia bridge underpass in Delhi’s Kishanganj — the accumulation of rainwater was so much that the passengers were made to wear life jackets and floating devices during the rescue operation.

In many instances, commuters have not been so fortunate. In June, a 60-year-old resident of Jaitpur, Delhi, drowned in the flooded underpass in Okhla while riding his two-wheeler. Last year, a 23-year-old girl, an engineer, died when the car in which she was travelling with her family sank in the water that had collected in the underpass near KR circle in Bengaluru following heavy rains.

All these mishaps highlight civic apathy and negligence on three counts: (a) design flaws and inadequate drainage mechanisms; (b) poor maintenance, particularly in respect of cleaning the drains; and (c) absence of warning systems and infrastructure to monitor underpasses during monsoon and prevent people from entering the flooded area.

An audit of underpasses in Bengaluru, undertaken by the civic authority following the tragedy last year, exposed similar lacunae. Pointing out that heavy winds along with rain had resulted in a considerable number of leaves and small branches entering the underpass and blocking the gratings in the KR circle underpass where the tragedy had occurred, the report suggested several remedial measures for this and other tunnels too. Installation of additional gratings, construction of drains at the entry and exit points of the underpass to prevent water accumulation, regular cleaning of drains, marking the danger level of water, CCTV cameras for real-time monitoring of water levels and a boom barrier to prevent vehicles from entering a flooded underpass, were some of the recommendations.

Given the fact that almost every city these days is experiencing heavy rains, all our underpasses should have additional provisions for draining out more quantities of rainwater at a faster rate. Besides rectifying faults in road surface levels that may also be leading to heavy waterlogging at certain points, regular cleaning of the drains is a must.

It is also extremely important to monitor water inundation in underpasses and send early warnings to motorists, besides installing large LED display boards at the entrance to warn vehicles. A strong barricade to prevent the entry of vehicles into flooded places is also essential. Today, we have the technology to achieve this — a combination of Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning can give the desired results.

However, for all this to happen, we as consumers and citizens need to demand that our Right to Life, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, be enforced. One way of putting pressure on the government to act is by constantly seeking information (under the RTI Act) on the safety status of underpasses that you frequently use. You can call for information on the water drainage capacity of the underpasses, the date on which the drains were cleaned, the frequency of flooding and similar facts. You can also seek information on the new ones being built. Another way of forcing the administration to strengthen the safety of underpasses is to file petitions in the high courts, seeking appropriate directions to the state administration.

Till these underpasses are upgraded and rendered safe, do not use them when it is raining heavily. Given the traffic jams during monsoons, it is not pleasant to take a circuitous route, but remember, if you enter a flooded underpass, you may not reach your destination at all.