Really beyond objections, really to no avail?

Might and the Almighty: In race to transform the city into Smart City, the authorities have neglected even the God. The Hanuman temple at Ajni has become dwarf before the upcoming Metro Station.

The demure structures that house small shops on both sides of Kamptee Road between the Gaddigudam Square and the Railway Overbridge near the majestic Sikh Gurudwara seem to have no future in their present form. In the next couple of years when the Metro Route and the Stations get ready, these shops will have either to be demolished or will keep tottering on the verge of demise. This is the urban story being scripted on advent of Metro Rail in Nagpur. If this is the story of Gaddigudam Square, a more or less similar story is being written in another chapter at the Variety Square as well as Rani Zhansi Square four kilometers away towards south.

For, at the Variety Square, the worst victim of the messy urban design in nothing other than the simple statue of Mahatma Gandhi standing almost apologetically in one corner, almost crying for attention -- which nobody seems in a mood to offer in the chaotic traffic, more chaotic parking, and most chaotic authorities that have no inclination to think about fine things such as statues of national icons. And just about 200 meters away, at the Rani Zhansi Square, the astride statue of the Queen has its sword pointed up towards the overhang of the Gowari Flyover as well as the still higher east-west arch of the Metro Rail route.

That grace and grandeur for which the statue was once known when it was installed about fifty years ago is no longer visible, thanks again to the messy design that has been foisted on the city whose residents had no inkling about what was going to be in store for them when Metro plans were first revealed -- mostly concealed paradoxically in official files but never really brought to people’s notice through public hearing and similar devices for the benefit of stake-holders. Similar is the story of the Munje Square where Metro Rail’s Interchange Station is coming up as a massive design disaster. There, the bust of the iconic Dr. Balkrishna Shivram Munje stands almost apologetically in one corner, obscured from public view. The bust may keep standing there, but eventually, it will fade out of memory in no time. For, when what passes as development becomes raucous and shrill, silent status of a national icon carries not even a symbolic gravitas.

And let us travel to the Ajni Square where also a Metro Rail Station is coming up. The western side of the Metro Station has physically, actually touched the Hanuman Temple that stands in the fork of two roads -- the Wardha Road and the Khamla Road. The Metro Rail project has not spared even the Almighty. Another silent sufferer there is the bust of another national icon -- Yashwantrao Chavan, standing neglected at the corner of the street leading to Surendra Nagar. When the authorities get blinded by their brazen hurry to do things, fine things often get sidelined, as can be seen from the four statues -- Mahatma Gandhi or Rani Laxmibai or Dr. B.S. Munje or Yashwantrao Chavan. In the developmental picture, these may appear to be ‘small’ things.

There may be many more, which we might not have been able to identify currently. But ...! Such small stories of big design issues are unfolding all over the city wherever Metro routes and Stations are coming up. That they are disrupting the smooth flow of traffic or that they are destroying the city’s otherwise peaceful persona, is actually the smaller part of the story of mess. The bigger part of that story is the spiritual invasion the Metro is causing on people, demolishing their idea of their own city, obstructing their view, and even obliterating a free flow of sunlight and air.

In most places along the Metro Rail routes everywhere in the city, the roads below have become much narrower not just for now but al most forever. Thus, the Metro Rail movement overhead will not ease the pressure of traffic on the roads below as that part has never been thought of when the Metro Rail project was planned. Let us take an example -- of the Kamptee Road starting from the Central Bank Square right up to the Indora Square through the Kadbi Chowk and the Dus Number Pulia Chowk. All along, the road on the ground will remain very narrow, making it difficult for a smooth flow of ever-increasing Nagpur traffic. In the overall planning, there appears to be no planning for easing of the traffic. At each place, the Metro Station jabs its sides into the nearby structures, forcing the people using those to suffer terrible inconveniences on several counts.

The most difficult on to put up with is the loss of space just outside the structures -- the breathing space as architects would love to describe it. Every city must have Elevation Control Orders, which even Nagpur also is supposed to have. Before the Metro Rail project came up, the civic authorities were allowing all sorts of messing up of the Elevation Control norms, by turning a blind eye to the violations by private parties. Now, with the ascendence of Metro Rail on the cityscape, the Elevation Control norms are getting violated officially, under the signature of the Government -- people having been left with no choice, even to register objections.

For record’s sake, the Metro authorities might have done some paper work to officialise what they are doing, but all that work has not come to people’s notice at least so far. For, a few readers of ‘The Hitavada’ have sent to us the letters they have sent to the Metro Rail authorities objecting to certain uncouth invasions of their private spaces, though to no avail. .... To no avail, beyond all objections! Yes, that is actually the crux of the story. ...!