The local urban development authority has painted the entire Madhusudan Marg in checker pattern to ready the street for the ongoing .FEST. But road safety experts feel that the pattern poses a severe risk of accidents since the authorities have not put proper signage for it.

Road safety experts feel that the checker pattern means the area or the road is a “Go Slow” zone, but it has to be marked properly with signage and public notices.

“It is a good initiative. But it is not being done in a proper manner. They can’t just assume that everybody knows about its use,” said Syed Maqbool Ali, former member of National Road Safety Council.

The Bhubaneswar Development Authority has painted 1.5-kilometre stretch from Housing Board Square to Ram Mandir Square in checker pattern and decided to restrict the vehicle movement on this stretch from 4pm to 12am for the ongoing .FEST at Exhibition Ground. However, the vehicles are allowed in the morning hours.

“I took the Madhusudan Marg today to reach out my house. I was riding my bike on the stretch and was blinded by the reflection of the white paint on the road. This road has speed breakers and we do slow down on the road, but this pattern rather than slowing us down has puts us in more risk,” said Dibakar Tripathy, a resident of Satya Nagar.

This stretch houses some of the major educational and religious institutions including Capital High School, Bhima Bhoi Blind School, Swami Nigamananda Asaan Mandir and Buddha Mandir on one side and Ekamra Haat and Exhibition Ground on the other. The stretch has a total of five speed breakers in intervals.

“The Madhusudan Marg houses a number of institutions where pedestrian movement is paramount. It is almost 60-feet wide road and adequate care has been taken for the safety of the people. The checker pattern has also been a part of the road safety measure and the people will be made aware of it,” said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

Bhouma Nagar resident Kalpana Jena said that the city was way behind in implementing the road safety measures.

“The roads are not marked properly, there are inadequate signage. Now they came up with this unique idea to paint the road in checker pattern. They need to make the people aware and then take such initiative,” said Jena, a banker.