Mangaluru: A Road Over Bridge (RoB) located near the Bondel-Pachanady railway track was demolished for the construction of a new one two years ago. However, two years later, there is still no sign of a new RoB as the work has not been completed and people in the surrounding areas are facing a lot of problems as a result.
Since the old RoB was demolished, vehicles have been forced to ply on a make-shift road, where a railway gate restricts the movement of traffic. Earlier, there was no disruption in the vehicular movement as there was an RoB to bypass the tracks.
The old RoB was demolished in February, 2018, as there was a plan of doubling the track, post which a new RoB would be built. Some work on the new RoB was started, however, it got stalled when the rains began. After the rains, the work was picked up again, only to be stalled once again for several other reasons.
In order to facilitate vehicular movement, the Railway department opened a new road adjacent to the site of the old RoB. However, when goods and passenger trains ply on the track, the railway department prevents the vehicular movement by lowering the railway gate. Hence, vehicles need to wait at least 10 to 15 minutes for the gate to open. The main issue is that over 40 trains, including goods trains, ply on this railway track every day, and the railway gatekeepers need to close and open the gate every time a train passes by.
When newskarnataka.com first reported about the inconvenience caused to the public by the incomplete RoB on October 10, 2018, Southern Railway Engineer Gopichandran Nayak said that the construction work was delayed and work would be completed in the month of March, 2019. However, a year later, the work has still not been completed.
Rickshaw drivers have lost a lot of income as they are forced to wait for a long time at the railway gate. The buses that ply on this route, like route number 19, 13 and 3, have cut their trip as they need to wait for a long time whenever a train passes by.
When contacted, local Corporator Sangeetha R Nayak said that she had visited the spot along with Mangaluru North MLA Dr Y Bharath Shetty and inspected the status of the work. “When we approached the engineers of the project, they assured us that the work would be completed by March this year,” she said.
MLA Dr Y Bharath Shetty told newskarnataka.com that the drainage pipeline and some other technical issues prevented the work from being expedited. “After consulting MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, the problems have been rectified and the contract company consented to speed up the work,” he said.
