No short-cut when railway gates close

Railway level crossing near Pandeshwar makes the journey longer.

A view of the railway level crossing at Pandeshwar in Mangalore.- Photo : H.S Manjunath

Though the Pandeshwar-Mangaladevi Road is a thoroughfare between central and south Mangalore including Kerala, at times motorists curse themselves for taking this ‘short-cut’ after wasting more than 20 minutes in the process.

All because of the railway level crossing near Srinivasa College on the railway line to Bunder. Since the line caters only to goods trains moving to and from the Bunder area – which do not stick to any timetable – one cannot predict the exact time of closure of the gate.

A proposal for construction of a road over bridge (RoB) at the location is yet to materialise despite it was sanctioned in the Railway Budget presented by Union Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda recently. While the State government is claiming that the RoB might not be needed at the spot because the Southern Railway (SR) would be closing down the goods shed yard, the SR has said it had no such plan.

In the bargain, it is the daily commuters who are affected. A.P. Aithal, a resident of nearby Subhashnagar, said motorists would be forced to wait at least for 20 minutes, particularly during the peak evening hours when the gate closes. Vehicles would pile up to 200-300 metres on either side of the road. Even after the gate opens, motorists struggle to cross the railway line as there was only a two-lane road at the crossing, while the other stretches of the road is four-laned, he said.

Ambuja, a resident of Pandeshwar, said that besides affecting vehicular movement, the level-crossing poses a grave threat to pedestrians. With the lack of sufficient space for pedestrians to walk near the crossing, they were forced to squeeze between the moving vehicles, she said.

Government nod

Anand Prakash, Divisional Railway Manager of SR, Palakkad, told The Hindu the Railways had prepared the plan and estimates, which was awaiting the State government approval. The RoB project is proposed to be executed through a 50:50 cost sharing basis, he said. Mr. Prakash also said the Railways had no proposal to close down the goods shed.

A senior official with the Mangalore City Corporation, however, said the corporation was not aware of the cost-sharing project. It had also not submitted any proposal to the Railways to construct an RoB, he said.