Title - Water logged Mahdibagh RUB creates traffic nightmare

NAGPUR: Motorists using the Mahdibagh railway under bridge (RUB) are facing serious inconvenience owing to a technical fault. This fault has resulted into frequent traffic snarls at the railway crossing that connects five busy localities- Shanti Nagar, Maskasath and Dahi Bazar, Binaki Mangalwari, Kamptee road and Kamal Chowk-to each other.A local resident Sachin Bisen told TOI that in 2006 the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) constructed the RUB along with the Mahdibagh railway over bridge at a cost of Rs 4 crore. Soon the RUB started witnessing frequent water logging. The residents say water logging at the RUB has now become severe after the railways started track doubling work. The residents demanded that the railways should lower the level sewage network to prevent water logging.The gradient required for proper discharge of sewage water does not exist here. "The nullah where the water is discharged is around 600 ft from RUB. The optimum gradient required will be around 6 ft. Since it does not exist, the pipeline gets choked. Even the drain from RUB does not serve the purpose," said Satranjipura zone's assistant municipal commissioner Milind Meshram.

Meshram on Tuesday inspected the site along with railway's assistant divisional engineer Kanhaiyalal Goyal and executive engineer (construction) G M Nagrajan. He observed that it is also occurring also due to negligent attitude of railways. However, railway engineers blamed NMC and MSRDC for constructing RUB which is a technical failure. Meshram responded that finger pointing would not solve the problem.

A group of residents of the nearby localities including Prem Nagar, Binaki Mangalwari, Khairipura, Lalganj, Mahdibagh colony led by Bisen resorted to a silent protest demanding that the authorities concerned restart the RUB and warning that they would resort to hunger strike. The residents also claimed that the ROB had failed to serve its purpose as it begins at Dahi Bazar area and ends near Rani Durgawati Chowk. Hence people coming from Maskasath and Shanti Nagar and going towards Binaki Mangalwari and Kamal Chowk are unable to use it. For this purpose the RUB was constructed. But it too failed to serve the purpose.

Meshram advised the railway's officials to cover the chambers along the railway track. The railway officials assured to cover the chambers immediately and also to extend support to the NMC' sanitary workers to clean the drainage line.

TOI found that due to knee-deep water, motorists were using the old railway crossing. The road from Shanti Nagar, Maskasath and Dahi Bazar towards Binaki Mangalwari, Kamptee road and Kamal Chowk is almost 40 ft wide. However, at the said crossing it becomes narrow. As a result, there is a traffic jam soon after the passing of any train and opening of gates.

As a solution, residents like Jitendra Durugkar, Vinay Parate, Anup Hedao, Vishnu Joshi, Ganesh Yadav urged the authorities to widen the railway crossing. This will help remove the bottleneck, they suggested. They also threatened that if problem is not solved, they would take out a morcha to Vidhan Bhavan during forthcoming winter session of state legislature.