Title - Overbridges set to make railway crossings safer

NOIDA: After the commissioning of the railway overbridge (ROB) at Dankaur crossing, four more such structures on the eastern periphery of Gautam Budh Nagar, which are in various stages of completion, are expected to further streamline traffic to neighbouring districts of Bulandshahr and Aligarh. All projects are being jointly developed by the Uttar Pradesh Bridge Corporation (UPBC) and the Railway Board. While two double-lane ROBs at Wair and Sikanderpur railway crossings have reached an advanced stage of construction and will be commissioned by August 2012, the remaining two ROBs, at Khurja and Chola crossings, have already received the sanction of the Railway Board and are awaiting clearance from the state government.The busy railway line, which runs along the eastern periphery of Gautam Budh Nagar, is a great hindrance for vehicular movement from Gautam Buddh Nagar to the neighbouring districts of western Uttar Pradesh, because of constant jams at the railway crossings. Several accidents have also been reported in the past at these crossings when vehicles and commuters cross the tracks in spite of it being closed to allow trains to pass through.

Commissioning of these ROBs and the upgrading of Dankaur ROB to four lanes would ensure that there is seamless flow of traffic from Gautam Budh Nagar towards other districts of western UP.

The Wair and Sikanderpur ROBs are being constructed on crossing numbers 136 and 131 and are each 737m in length. While the Wair crossing is being constructed at a budget of Rs 18.48 crore, the Sikanderpur crossing has a budget of around Rs 17.5 crore. While the Wair ROB would connect Jewar with Wair through Sikandrabad, the Sikanderpur crossing would connect Kakod in Bulandshahr. Both ROBs have two lanes.

"In these ROBs, the approach roads are being developed by the UPBC while the portions over the railway lines are being developed by the Railway Board," said an official of UPBC.

The UPBC informed that the ROB at Khurja, built at railway crossing number 129B, has been approved by the Railway Board and its proposal is awaiting clearance from the state government. "Work is ready to begin on this ROB, once the budget proposal is cleared by the state government," said the UPCB official.

The proposal for the ROB at the Chola station on railway crossing number 134B, designed to be a four-lane flyover, has already been cleared by the Railway Board. "This proposal would shortly be sent to the state government for approval," said the official.

All five ROB projects, including the recently commissioned Dankaur ROB, had been initiated by the erstwhile Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government in Uttar Pradesh.