Motorists stop over a zebra crossing on Main Road in Ranchi. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Dec. 22: How much does it cost to paint a small stretch of the road ? It should be a few hundred Rupees at best. But it is not because of the cost that the state capital is virtually without the two crucial signs for traffic management, the ?stop? sign and the ?zebra? sign.

The stop sign is designed to force vehicles to stop at a safe distance before the zebra sign, so as to allow pedestrians to cross over and also for a smooth flow of traffic from other directions.

In the absence of the stop sign anywhere in the state capital, vehicles usually inch dangerously towards the crossings, stopping only grudgingly and leaving a small gap for others to squeeze through.

What is worse, there are few places in the capital where one sees the ?zebra? sign. Wherever the signs are there though, pedestrians can rarely use it for crossing. They do so at their own peril because vehicles are never stopped to allow pedestrians to move.

Pedestrians themselves of course are as unruly as the drivers.

Jay walkers abound and pedestrians take their chances, crossing the roads at will and wherever they can.

The only solution appears to be underground subways. But then what is the guarantee that they will be used by people, specially since the overhead walk-bridge in front of the GEL Church Complex is not used at all. The subways would also involve going down an equal number of stairs and climbing up to the road-level.

The problem remains unattended despite the acknowledgment that half of the reported road accidents in the capital take place at crossings. Most of the unreported ones too perhaps take place there.

?We have met the DC and the SP (traffic) at least 10 times but we have received no relief,? said a Tharpakhna resident, Anirban Gupta.

Deputy commissioner Pradeep Kumar said he was aware of the problem.