Title - Kamptee Road mega pothole causing traffic jams

NAGPUR: Central Railways had recently operated a mega block in Nagpur. This problem lasted five days and will smoothen railway traffic. However, a mega pothole on Kamptee Road just at the mouth of a railway underbridge (RuB) near the NIT Transport Plaza is causing inconvenience to travellers and truckers since fifteen days.Eight days ago, the traffic police had intimated the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) but no action has been taken. "An NMC pipeline has developed a leak as a result of which drivers can't fathom the depth of the pothole. Many vehicles have been damaged in the last few days," DCP (Traffic) Jivraj Dabhade told TOI. When TOI visited the spot on Friday evening, there was a half kilometre-long traffic jam. A heavily loaded truck got stuck just near the narrow RuB thereby paralysing traffic for fifteen minutes. Even cyclists were stuck in the traffic. Then truckers going toward Kamptee moved towards Nagpur in reverse gear. This created some space for smaller vehicles, which passed through the bottleneck. However, the trucks and buses were stuck for another fifteen to twenty minutes. Smooth flow of traffic only resumed after 45 minutes.The road under the RuB is cemented but on either side it is the regular tar roads. The pothole is located on the Kamptee side of the cement road patch. Unless you drive very slowly your vehicle will hit the sharp edge of the cement road. The tyres of many trucks get stuck at the cement road edge.Amol Chaudhari, who runs a firm in the adjoining Uppalwadi industrial estate, said that the traffic problem had become acute due to the big pothole. "Traffic jams during peak hours have become regular. There are two schools in the area and when they start the problem will become more critical," said Chaudhari.Slamming government agencies, businessman TS Renu said that had this pothole developed on the road connecting Wardha Road to the airport then it would have been repaired in a day.Corporator of Nari ward Gautam Patil demanded that NMC take immediate steps to fill up the pothole. "Residents of nearby localities are stuck on the spot for an hour just to travel a kilometre or two."