RailEnquiry

PUNE: Shiv Sena and Republican Party of India activists on Sunday staged a demonstration at Sasanenagar railway crossing near Hadapsar demanding a rail overbridge to end the perennial traffic chaos."The project is getting delayed because of lack of coordination between various agencies. The PMC is expected to make payment to railways for the bridge. But the payment is yet to come. As a result, the project has been delayed," Shiv Sena MLA Mahadev Babar said.He accused the authorities concerned of changing the plan of the bridge. The authorities had initially planned to construct an overbridge, but later decided to go for an underground one. "We want the authorities to take a call on the technical issues and commence the work within three months," Babar said.The demonstrators also shouted slogans in favour of similar overbridges at Ghorpadi and Manjari railway crossings.Thousands of people living in the B T Kawade Road area, Ghorpadi, Wanowrie, Fatimanagar, Mundhwa, Hadapsar and Magarpatta have to wait for long hours at these crossings every day. Residents have been for years agitating for rail over-bridges at Pune-Solapur and Pune-Miraj crossings.

School students, office-goers and call centre employees have a harrowing time to reach their respective destinations on time because of the snarls. Ambulances and other emergency vehicles, too, get stuck, while accidents in these areas have been frequent.

The proposal for overbridges has been pending for more than a decade now, sanctions for which are awaited from agencies like Pune Municipal Corporation, Pune Cantonment Board, railways, Pune sub area (army) and defence estates.