Title - Mirchi Bazaar bridge to finally go over railway tracks

NAGPUR: After a wait of months, the railway ministry has finally approved the proposal to lease the land needed for construction of Itwari railway overbridge (RoB) to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). The proposal was sent to SECR on August 17, 2011.

The project has been taken up under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). It was slated to be completed by February 2010. However, due to various reasons, primarily delay by railways in granting requisite clearances, it is stuck.

NMC has completed the retaining wall for the RoB from Itwari railway station end. The wall is 280 metre long. The work on footing of suspended portion of the bridge is also complete. The land on Mirchi Bazar side of the railway track belongs to railways. No work has been done on this side.

Earlier, zonal head offices were empowered to decide on proposals to lease railway land to other agencies. However, a few months ago these powers were transferred to the railway ministry. As a result the proposal got delayed.

City engineer SS Gaikwad told TOI that it would take at least a month to actually acquire the land. "The proposal has reached SECR head office at Bilaspur. They will send it us. We will have to pay the money to SECR for the land. This proposal will have to be cleared by the standing committee," he explained.

Deputy engineer DD Jambhulkar said that it would take nine months to complete the RoB after NMC gets possession of the land. "Had the railways not delayed the proposal the bridge would have been completed last year."

Last month, NMC had approached chief secretary JK Banthia to hasten up the clearance from the railway ministry. City engineer Gaikwad told Banthia about the inordinate delay by the ministry. The chief secretary immediately directed state transport secretary Shailesh Sharma to pursue the issue with the railway ministry. Efforts by the state government bore fruit and the railways cleared the proposal in a fortnight.

The existing two-lane Itwari RoB was built during British times. At that time there was not much traffic on it. However, with increase in population of the city as well as number of vehicles, the bridge witnesses traffic jams daily. The new bridge - to the west of the old one - is also a two-lane structure. When it is completed the two RoBs will provide a four lane transit across the Mumbai-Howrah railway line.

Due to delay in completion of works the project cost has almost doubled. NMC's share in the project has increased from Rs2.7 crore to Rs15.7 crore as state and central governments do not bear the price escalation cost of JNNURM projects.