Riding on open streets with no or fewer trees can be exhausting during summer, especially around the noon when the heat is too high to drain you out. While trees that run alongside roads provide some shade and ease the travel a little, what about those spaces which lack greenery? Planting a tree might serve as the best way to work it out, however, it would need years together to grow and provide shelter to commuters. Looking into this, the Pondicherry Public Welfare Department in southern India installed green roofs at traffic signals to comfort people travelling under the scorching heat.
This is one way to beat the extreme heat that the country is currently experiencing. While some parts are recording temperature around 40°C, other parts are sweating as the Mercury is hitting the mid-40s on a daily basis.
Video from Pondicherry surfaces online
A video from the streets of Pondicherry captures the works of PWD in the region. It shows netted green roof fitted above the roadway for a few metres from the zebra crossing line and the traffic signal, assisting people to stay under the covering during and escaping the direct sunrays during their waiting period.
The video opened showing bikers waiting under the green roof until the signal turned green. It surfaced from a junction that on the other side showed a few autos and a bus alongside other two-wheelers availing the benefits of the installed shade.
This idea could turn out to be a game changer if implemented on a larger scale across the country, especially during the summertime.
(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected to India)