RailEnquiry

KANPUR: Frequent traffic jams, dilapidated condition of roads, tempo and bus menace and erratic power supply are some of the problems being faced by the people almost daily. To add to the woes, are the damaged and completely broken railings at the rail over bridges (ROBs) and flyovers, through which thousands of people commute everyday.Imagine a vehicle passing through an ROB which has damaged or broken railings. The result could be a fatal accident. Such ROBs and flyovers can easily be seen in the city.The most damaged ROBs are Jhakarkati and Murray Company ones, where the broken railings are inviting trouble for the people. The damaged portion of the ROBs can cause accidents anytime, particularly during nights.At Jhakarkati ROB, the railings are missing from a number of places. The commuters passing through the ROB are at a risk. The state roadways buses, heavy vehicles, cars and two-wheelers pass through this ROB. If at any point of time, a vehicle goes close to one side of the ROB where railings are damaged, it can fall down, causing serious injuries to the driver. Such mishaps have taken several times at this ROB but no remedial steps have been taken by the authorities concerned. Every time a mishap takes place, the injured are rushed to the hospital or if a death takes place, it is mourned but the damaged portion of the ROB is not repaired. The question here is why such a lackadasicial attitude is adopted by the authorities responsible for doing the needful, especially when the Jhakarkati ROB is close to Inter-State bus-station.A few months ago, a truck had fallen down from the Jhakarkati ROB. The truck had turned into debris and those seated inside had received serious injuries. A similar incident had taken place at Tat Mill flyover, where a car had fallen down. Luckily, no one was hurt in the mishap.Another car had skidded off the road and fallen from the Murray Company ROB. The car driver and a couple of persons present underneath the ROB suffered injuries. A rickshaw puller had sustained multiple injuries in the accident. The car had fallen on the rickshaw.One more accident took place at Murray Company ROB a few months ago. A luxury vehicle belonging to a doctor fell down the railing. The vehicle luckily did not fall on the ground but the breath taking scene was that it remained hung in the air. Nobody was injured in the accident.The situation at the Govindpuri bridge is also not much different. It has also several patches where the railings of damaged and needs immediate attention.It means that one has to drive with caution and avoid driving close to the damaged railing to avert accident from taking place. It remained common in all these accidents that the damaged, broken and mangled railings of the ROBs were never repaired, nor the new railing installed. At present, the Jhakarkati and Murray Company ROBs have many openings, inviting accidents to take place. The worst is the condition of the Jhakarkati ROB, which has over half-a-dozen dangerous openings.The authorities have just placed either bamboo sticks or tied nylon ropes. But a bigger question is that whether the bamboo sticks and nylon ropes enough to prevent a vehicle from falling down from an ROB, especially when the iron railings collapse.