Issues related to the road network & transportation in Urban areas: a study based on Kalmunai municipal council

Abstract

Road network consists of a system of interconnected paved carriageways which are designed to carry buses, cars and other vehicles. The road network generally forms the most basic level of transport infrastructure within urban areas and will link with all other areas, both within and beyond the boundaries of the urban area. In most countries including Sri Lanka, Road Networks are the major transport mode for both freight and passengers. But nowadays Sri Lanka is facing many challenges to solve the problems regarding the road maintenance, traffic and their associated problems. Kalmunai city is one of the major service point in Ampara district. More than 20000 people access this service point for their day to day activities. This Research discusses about the issues related to the road network and transportation in Kalmunai Municipal area. In that way the main objective of this study is to identify the road transportation network problems in research area and provide the solution for those problems. The study campaigns qualitative methods by using primary and secondary data collections methods. The primary data were collected through questionnaires, interview and field observation. Questionnaires were to reflect 0.1% of total population. Secondary data were collected through UDA reports, Police reports, published & unpublished researches. Both data were analyzed using MS Excel software. According to the data analysis of this research it was found that many problems like division of the road into lanes without considering the width, Inadequate pedestrian crossings, Pavement hawkers being on either side of the main roads, Poor maintenance of By-roads, Parking of vehicles on either side of the roads and unavailability of traffic light signal systems. As conclusion of this study remedial measures were suggested to get over those problems.