STUDENTS' CORNER - 222

We will briefly look into the challenges faced while attempting to maintain the roads.  It may be a matter of wonder for many if it is said that roads deteriorate. That is, if left unused for some years, the roads age; deterioration is the ageing of the roads.

 Damage to the roads is something that is generally done to the roads from without; deterioration is something that happens on its own, within.  It is the nature of things that if they are not used they tend to age and deteriorate. Human body decomposes and the roads deteriorate.  This leads to the fact that roads must be maintained.

Maintenance of roads is a recurring phenomenon and the frequency of maintenance depends on the efficient laying of the roads. The less efficiently-laid roads need maintenance in a short span of time.  So also, more damaged roads need maintenance often and at once because damage is the result of use of the roads. It is nearly impossible to do maintenance of the network of the roads which normally in a nation runs into lakhs of kilometers.

 More often than not, roads are either misused or abused.  Blocking the roads for some reason or other is misusing the roads; digging the roads to plant a pole with a flag is abusing the roads. Misuse damages the roads a little less than the abuse which causes greater damage to the roads. To put it differently, misuse mutilates and abuse kills. Very often roads get damaged because of use and it can’t be helped. Roads are meant to be used.

Leave alone the cost involved in the maintenance of the roads. Ill-maintained roads tend to cause more accidents.  For any government, it is a matter of deep concern that roads kill many human beings; that is, many fatal accidents figure out on some traffic-loaded roads. Apart from the human errors in driving, there are other hazards on the roads; pot-holes, puddles, cracks, uneven ground, so on; all these features claim lives.  The government that does not seem to address the issue of road accidents is blamed by all, particularly the social activists and the government faces the risk of losing power of rule.

More than that, the daily operations of human beings, the citizens using the roads, get disturbed.  Misery if not suffering in using the bad roads affects the ordinary day-to-day living spirit.  Bad roads irritate. People tend to lose trust in the power that be; this fear of losing people’s trust is a great challenge to the men in power of rule.

We will see some more of such challenges in maintaining the roads in our next session.