Title - Railways feel the pinch as RoB work drags

Kochi: With the crucial Pachalam project, first mooted over two decades back as a solution to traffic snarls in Banerjee road and to avoid delayed at the railway gate, remaining a non-starter, the railways have started feeling the pinch.

The railways cite that the maintenance cost is very high in the busiest railway gate of the district. A major share is spent for repairing the old gate which often gets damaged with vehicles ramming into it while trying to cross the narrow stretch.

“We’re forced to deploy four staff (by turn) since it’s the gate through which all the trains pass and the frequency is very high. Every month, besides incurring nearly Rs 60, 000 towards wages, a good amount is spent in repairing the old-model gate,” a railway official said.

According to the official, there are two to three instances monthly when vehicles hit the gate, resulting in its non-function. “Since it’s opened and closed by rope-pulleys, a small collision is enough to jam it, resulting in congestion for hours. Further the frequency is so high that at peak hours, the vehicles have to wait for 10 to 15 minutes.”

The project, included under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Rural Mission (JnNURM) and for which Rs 44.82 crore was sanctioned, has been delayed mainly due to hitches in land acquisition and objections against the alignment. The local residents and the Chathiyathu Church authorities raised protests against the alignment and demanded realignment.

Kochi Corporation sources all along have maintained that only a policy decision is pending before the work can start. “Locals wanted the width to be shrunk to 10 metres instead of the proposed 22. But when the width is reduced, the gradient should be increased to 1:30 which will increase the length. This again requires major land acquisitions and high cost,” they said.