Tekdi flyover demolition, underpass at Loha Pul work to begin before Diwali
| Date :19-Oct-2020 |
The ‘disaster design’ the Tekdi flyover coming from behind
the statue of Sant Tulsidas is to be demolished pre-Diwali
or immediately after Diwali and will end the troubles for
the commuters.
By Vikas Vaidya :
After much delay, finally the civic authorities have seriously decided to give momentum to three major works -- demolition of disaster design Tekdi Flyover, extension of Ramjhula upto either Kingsway Hospital or Punjab National Bank and construction of underpass at Loha Pul near Manas Chowk. According to highly placed sources, the contracts have been allotted and the work is likely to start before Diwali. It is ‘The Hitavada’ that has been constantly raising the issue of Tekdi Flyover terming it as ‘disaster design’. Unfortunately, city fathers did not realise it till the Ramjhula came into existence.
This bridge became a major traffic hurdle. People got confused along with the administration and traffic cops. Sans the guidance of cops, the commuters started using the area as per their whims and fancies. In fact country’s reputed institute Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) had advised the then administration not to go with the plan of construction of this disaster bridge. But nobody paid attention to it. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari took up the issue and had asked the authorities to speed up the work. Recently, he fired some officials for not providing the required momentum to the project, that worked and authorities swung into action.
All the three works are likely to begin by Diwali. The construction of shopping complex is near ready, thanks to Nagpur Metro that did it. The shopping complex was constructed for the shopowners who run their small businesses under the bridge. The rehabilitation of 166 shopkeepers would be over in about a week by Diwali. Once their rehabilitation is done the demolition of bridge will start. VNIT has already submitted its report calling the flyover in front of Nagpur’s main railway station a disaster design and has suggested that should be demolished as it is creating chaos. The VNIT studied structural aspects and also the traffic chaos being faced by the commuters. The process of handing over of land required for rehabilitation of the shopkeepers is being executed. According to plans apart from the demolition of Tekdi flyover, stretching of Ramjhula to PNB and construction of underpass too will begin simultaneously, said Pravin Datke, MLC.
“Statue of Sant Tulsidas at Manas Chowk will be shifted to a suitable place near the square and the underpass would be constructed from there through the Railway’s land. The temple of Goddess that is standing right in front of the present underpass would be kept as it is. According to experts the temple is not creating any obstacle. In fact it would help in avoiding chaos. Descend of Ramjhula too would be extended to PNB or Kingsway Hospital so that there would be no hurdle near railway station. This will help commuters from RBI or LIC Square to travel to Central Avenue with ease. Tekdi bridge is the unwanted thing and it would be demolished now. We are correcting the mistakes committed by the civic body who came out with this disaster project,” stated Datke.
This Under-pass will connect West to East Nagpur resulting in reduction in traffic congestion on road beneath Loha Pool. At present the underpass at Loha pool is divided into two -- one is for going towards Mahal and another is for the people to come to West Nagpur. In the new structure this underpass will become one wider part for commuters to come to West Nagpur. The other under-pass will go from near Manas Chowk to be used by commuters for going towards East part of the city that will reach Cotton Market. A huge Parking Plaza is all set to come up as part of the project at the piece of land originally owned by MSRTC which has been vacated. The then civic body did not take stakeholders into consideration, now demolishing it also would burden the exchequer with over Rs 18.51 crore. It was on May 27, 2008, that the flyover, became functional. Shockingly the flyover did not have approval of any competent authority.