In a big relief for commuters, the iron poles installed on Ajni railway overbridge (RoB) were removed on Friday evening. Sources said personnel of Traffic Control Branch cut these poles after getting no objection from the officials of civic body. With poles gone a major impediment in the smooth flow of traffic on North-South and East-West and vice-versa movement of traffic was successfully overcame.

 

As soon as the poles were removed traffic flow improved quickly and jams too thinned out as vehicles started moving faster to and fro from the RoB. The Hitavada had relentlessly campaigned against the irrational move on part of officials of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) in regulating movement of heavy vehicles from the RoB by going for affixing of iron poles.

 

An alert citizen Shirish Salpekar, a resident of MIG Colony, Kukde Layout, thanked Municipal Commissioner Abhijit Bangar for taking cognizance of trouble created for citizens due to iron poles on Ajni RoB and having them remove. He also appreciated the campaign undertaken by The Hitavada highlighting the flashpoint and inconvenience caused to commuters on Ajni RoB due to presence of iron poles.

 

The shortcut adopted by civic body ended up creating an unwanted flashpoint at Ajni that in turn put pressure on traffic movement in entire surrounding area. The city buses for whom the route was most convenient were currently being run through the small road of Jat Tarodi causing pressure on the small internal by-lanes.

 

Even light vehicles that could not move past the iron grid at RoB were using the small internal by-lanes ending up creating new flashpoint at Dhantoli railway underbridge (RuB) and later at Medical College Square that already choc a bloc with vehicular traffic during peak morning and evening time.

 

This was in addition to traffic jams on either end of RoB, and more particularly near Ajni railway station resulting in additional pressure on city police. Nearly four to five cops of Traffic Control Branch were deployed at Ajni RoB during evening hours and had quite a hectic time in regulating traffic.

 

Sources said senior officials of city police took up the issue with Municipal Commissioner Abhijit Bangar and demanded immediate removal of the poles that were drilled and affixed in cement concrete by NMC. Now the public money has gone down the drain and the only solution as was highlighted by The Hitavada is installation of height gauge if the RoB is to be preserved till new one comes up at Ajni.

 

Now spotlight is back on ageing RoB and the removal of iron poles would surely given nightmares to railway officials who only recently had heaved a sigh of relief.