Faulty RuB by Railways! MCC bears the Brunt

Faulty RuB by Railways! MCC bears the Brunt

Faulty design and planning of the Road under Bridge (RuB) near Padil-Bajal by the Southern Railways, Mangaluru City Corporation has to bear the brunt in rectifying the “Flooded Situation”?

Mangaluru: Only a person/persons with no brain/brains would plan and construct a Road under Bridge (RuB), without having a proper drainage system? With the present situation with water stranded up to knee level at the RuB, road users are forced to wade through a cesspool inside the under-bridge. The foundation for Padil-Bajal ‘Railway Under Bridge’ was laid on August 16, 2014 by the then union minister for railways D V Sadananda Gowda. The project was expected to finish by February 2015 , but the deadline was later extended to June/October 2015. But finally the RuB was put into use few months ago- but since then it has been creating lots of inconveniences and hardships for the people and motorists. But still none of the Railway authorities nor MCC officials have come forward to rectify the pending issues. With no proper drainage planned while constructing this RUB, rain water has got stranded up to knee level and sometimes even above.

Even as of today, 18 July 2016 nothing much has been done to fix this “watery” situation. With the incessant rains daily, and due to the poor planning of this under-bridge with no proper drainage the rain water has been collecting till knee high. While motorists, especially two-wheelers are managing to wade through the water, the pedestrian are using alternative and longer routes to avoid this mess in order to reach their work places and other appointments in the city. The main reason for present pathetic situation is because of the lack of coordination between the City administration and Palakkad division of Southern Railways.

The RuB looks like swimming pool, and few days ago there was a protest by a organization by fishing in this flooded water. With no other option to allow the flow of the stranded water, MCC has been using pump-sets to pump water to clear the area, when it rains. The pump-set will be placed permanently until monsoon ends-just an added expenses to MCC, in other words, waste of hard earned tax-payers money for a job done bad by some goof-ball?

KS Lingegowda, a executive engineer at MCC speaking to Team Mangalorean said, ” Although we are using pump-set to clear the flooded water under the bridge, but while planning this project, the Railways authorities should have thought of building Rail over Bridge (ROB) and Road under Bridge (RuB), since the spot is a low lying area. Since there is no other option to allow the flow of water, we have to use pump-sets to drain out the water, which is the only solution at the moment till we come up with a better idea. The corporation might also increase the height of the box base by about three inches to prevent water logging after the monsoon “.

In the meantime, fuming over the faulty design of the railways, Deputy Commissioner AB Ibrahim has asked MCC officials to file a complaint against Southern Railway Palghat Division for their faulty work, and has also directed MCC to convey a meeting soon to find another alternative other than pumping water daily during rainy season, to rectify this situation, which has put motorists and pedestrians in hardship.

While the main road goes straight towards Bajal, the one immediately after the under-bridge leads to Veera Nagar and on the right leads to Vijaya Nagar. The road to Veera Nagar has to utilize some portion of the Railway land, for which, the corporation says, the former was objecting to and the work was getting delayed. Though the corporation was aware of the existence of a perennial stream immediately after the under-bridge, little was done to allow free flow of water without disturbing the vehicular movement through the bridge. With heavy rains lately, water is getting accumulated inside the concrete box forcing vehicle users to wade through the pool. While Mangaluru South MLA J.R. Lobo had already visited the under-bridge and asked the corporation to speed up the construction of the drain to facilitate smooth flow of the stream, and Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, had also held a meeting with Southern Railway officials to iron out differences on construction of the approach road- but seems like nothing has been done so far, other than pumping of water.

Although RuB road stretch has been closed for the timing, but two-wheelers ride and pedestrians wade through this flooded/stranded water, putting their lives in risk-other than that the RuB that was constructed with few crores has resulted in tax payers money going down the, “Drain”?..Ooops sorry,… ” Pumped Water?”.

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Go Fishing in Troubled RUB Water at Padil-Bajal