BENGALURU: It has been seven years since the Railway Board approved the construction of a Road Under Bridge (RUB) between the railway stations in Yesvantpur and Malleswaram that would eliminate the railway Level Crossing (LC) gate on Milk Colony Road. However, neither the Railways nor the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) still have any concrete answers on when it would materialise.
Residents continue to suffer with long queues of motorists piling up on both sides of the gate every time a train passes here.
Originally planned as a Road Over Bridge (ROB) 12 years ago, it was later converted into an RUB as it would require less land to be acquired. The project was approved by the Railway Board in 2014-2015. It was to be built on a 50:50 cost sharing basis with the State government. The main bridge would be built by the Constructions department of the South Western Railway Zone while construction of the approach roads would be the responsibility of the BBMP.
Residents were understandably frustrated over the long delay in carrying out the work. Priti Rajesh, a resident of Brigade Gateway residential complex nearby which has around 1,000 houses, told The New Indian Express about the serpentine queues of motorists on either side of the gate during peak morning and evening hours . "There are two schools here and a hospital. It is really upsetting to watch ambulances being stuck in front of the railway gate. The LC gate was meant to be eliminated years ago but there is no movement towards making it happen," she said.
C R Venkatesh, a retired bank official, who resides nearby said, "It is really frustrating and I can never escape the gate anytime I step out of my house. It is a 15-minute wait normally. In case, two trains pass within a short time of each other, it extends beyond 20 minutes."
A top offical in the Construction department said that it was upto the BBMP to ready the General Alignment Plan. "A joint meeting was held by both departments in February this year. The General Arrangement Drawing needs to be approved by both the BBMP and the Railways before the project can be taken forward," he said.
BBMP Chief Engineer, Road Infrastructure, Prahlad Rao had a different version. He said, "Railways has conducted a technical feasibility study here and have submitted the report to its headquarters in Hubballi for approval. That needs to come through first," he said.
MLA Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who had inspected the area in December 2021 and promised remedial steps. He did not respond to repeated calls from TNIE.