Barricades installed without enough preparation on Vaigai South Bank Road in Madurai.
| Photo Credit: G. Moorthy
The role of barricades in avoiding head-on collisions on Madurai city roads has been significant.What started as a new initiative on black spots on stretches of roads, where frequent accidents were reported, more than a decade back, has now become a basic norm.Department of Highways and Madurai Corporation jointly took up the onus of putting up permanent barricades separating the vehicles moving on opposite directions. It all started on the wider roads in K.K. Nagar, Anna Nagar and Goripalayam.The officials built concrete walls on those identified stretches. Number of head-on collisions that causes greater impacts came down drastically. However, it took long time for those agencies in meeting the expectations of the traffic police as budgetary allocation was not forthcoming at desired pace. Over a period, the police also realised that the role of barricades was more than avoiding accidents — that is, in regulating unauthorised parking on road margins and carriageways.Without waiting for the government agencies, the city police started to mobilise funds through private sponsors in expediting the process of erecting barricades on major bus routes. As a result, steel barricades started mushrooming on the wide and narrow roads alike. “These barricades were temporary in nature and could be removed and replaced with permanent structures whenever the agencies came forward to construct them. Those steel barricades were taken to other roads that warranted their need,” said a senior police officer. As the wider foot of the removable barricades, encroached upon the road space, the officials came up with the idea of erecting barricades digging holes on the road.However, a series of steel barricades that were not properly designed but erected on the Kuruvikaran Salai bridge and on the Vaigai River South Bank Road are now posing danger to the road users. The smaller blocks of concrete that were used as foot do not have adequate weight to hold the barricades. And the strong winds on the open space were pushing the barricades down.In the last couple of weeks, the barricades have fallen on the carriageway more than twice. Efforts by the police to re-erect have only failed. Later, the police could only pull some 10 fallen barricades to the road side.Similarly, steel barricades that get twisted due to reckless vehicles also pose danger to road users at few spots. With the monsoon season around the corner and strong wind blowing, the police have to ensure that the barricades serve their purpose of making roads safer and not otherwise. Published - June 12, 2026 08:44 pm IST
