This was the status of the Road Over Bridge connecting the Vivekananda Group of Institutions campus on the Mangaluru-Hassan Railway line where road users had to struggle to cross the bridge in 2018 at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Students of Vivekananda Group of Educational Institutions and residents of Nehru Nagar and surrounding areas at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district can heave a sigh of relief from Wednesday, May 1, as the South Western Railway will throw open the widened Road Over Bridge (RoB) on Vivekananda College-Bannur-Haradi Road.
Road users, including thousands of students walking to their colleges, used to have a harrowing time while crossing the narrow 3.8 metres RoB over the Mangaluru-Bengaluru Railway line on the road from Mani-Mysuru National Highway 275 to Vivekananda campus and further towards Bannur. The road later joins the Puttur-Uppinangady State Highway thus acting as an outer ring road for Puttur Town.
Wide RoB
After persistent demand by people and the initiative of people’s representatives, the SWR finally took up the work to widen the RoB in December 2023 at an estimated cost of ₹5.4 crore. Social and Railway activist Dinesh Bhat of Puttur said that initially the SWR wanted the State government to bear half the price and later it decided to bear the full cost.
The new RoB has a total width of 11.8 metres with a 7.5 metre carriageway for vehicles and 1.5 metres-wide footpaths on both sides. The footpaths are provided with concrete crash barriers to protect pedestrians, particularly students if any vehicle happens to hit the sides of the RoB. The structure is a 24-metres span composite girder RoB thereby providing sufficient space beneath for doubling the existing railway line, said an official of the SWR.
The SWR has also concreted the approach roads to the RoB for a length of about 100 metres on either side, the official added.
Long-pending demand
Students as well as the residents of Nehru Nagar had been demanding a wider RoB for over a decade. Mr. Bhat said he had submitted a memorandum with over one thousand signatures to the Railway Minister in 2016. Many students and residents, including Karthik Shenoy, Chaitra Baipadavu, Brijesh Naik, Shrinivas Shenoy and others had also launched a Twitter (as it was then) campaign in 2018 in this regard.
Mr. Bhat told The Hindu that road users would be relieved when the RoB gets commissioned on Wednesday. Railway activist Sudarshan Puttur too actively participated in the struggle for the new RoB.
