Fight for subway
BANGALORE: Bharathinagar residents association along with Cox Town residents forum launched a protest on Tuesday against the delay in completing the pedestrian subway across Wheeler Road Railway Level Crossing lines at the site near ITC.
In a span of one year, 13 deaths have been recorded. After persistent efforts by resident associations to take proper action towards the increasing accidents, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) sanctioned an amount of `2.95 crore to the Railways to take appropriate action.
N S Ravi, the president of Bharathinagar Residents Forum said, “A skywalk crossing was planned by the authorities concerned, about three and half years ago. After much deliberation and delay, about two years ago, the project was changed to be an underpass. Again after much persuasion by the residents, BBMP sanctioned some funds. The work went on for six months and one fine day the work was stopped. Reasons sited by the contractor was water logging. Gradually, all the materials and men were also removed from the site, citing technical reasons. Now there is no sign of resuming work.” According to Ravi, the forum had been sending facts to the Division Railway Manager (DRM) on many occasions, however, no action has been taken yet. The forum is also constantly in talks with the BBMP Chief Engineer Sreedhar.
Both resident forums are determined to get the project completed this time around. Ravi maintains, “We will go slow but next we will launch a protest in front of BBMP commissioner’s office and DRM’s office.”
When City Express tried to contact BBMP commissioner Shankarlinge Gowda, he was unavailable for any comments.