A long pending demand of residents of six colonies located near the Rammurthy Panthulu Peta (RP Peta) level-crossing has at last been realised with the opening of the under path below the track (Limited Height Subway) to the Kancharapalem Main Road on Monday.
Though a flyover was constructed a few decades ago, it begins at Kancharapalem Mettu and ends much after Goddess Pydimamba temple after crossing all the nearby residential areas.
The residential colonies are located close to the RP Peta level crossing and following permanent closure of the level crossing, motorists coming from Kancharapalem Mettu-side had to take a detour via the flyover and cover nearly one kilometre to reach their homes.
Ganababu thanked
The residents thanked West MLA PGVR Naidu, popularly known as Gana Babu for his untiring efforts to realise their dream. “Mr. Gana Babu gave ₹3 crore from his constituency funds besides following up with the railways regularly,” said B.V. Appa Rao, resident of Gavara Kanchaparapalem, and a Congress activist, giving full credit to the MLA.
He, however, felt that providing a road from the under path to the Thatichetlapalem Main Road would be more convenient to residents as they can easily reach the National Highway or the RTC Complex, avoiding the congested Kancharapalem Mettu.
“The frequent closure of the gate during the last several decades used to inconvenience students and others. The permanent closure during the last three years, resulted in the death of patients due to delays in ambulances reaching their homes,” said TDP 43rd ward resident S. Rajasekhar.
B. Ajay, an engineering student and N. Sai, a student of ITI, and Mall Raju of Gavara Kancharapalem concurred with his views.
“This problem was nagging for several decades. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had granted ₹3 crore from the Special Development Fund and former Divisional Railway Manager Chandralekha Mukherjee and former GVMC Commissioner and Collector Pravin Kumar had contributed to the speedy execution of the work,” a beaming Mr. Naidu, who inaugurated the under path, told The Hindu .
Herculean task
The East Coast Railways completed the LHS in a record time of 3 hours and 30 minutes in April last week this year. For the first time the railways had worked in the night and had enforced a traffic block of 4 hours and 30 minutes on both ‘Up and Down’ lines simultaneously to complete the work. Constructing an LHS in 3 to 4 hours is a Herculean task and it needs coordination between men and machine.
About 300 men were assisted by two 300 MT and two 400 MT cranes and six heavy-duty excavators. The technology used was pre-cast RCC (reinforced cement concrete).
According to railway officials, the length of this LHS is about 24 mts and the height is close to 6.5 mts.
