Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

Road underbridge project moving at a snail's pace

Staff Reporter

The road remained closed for almost a year

PIT STOP: A pilgrim walking through a huge pit to cross the road underbridge which is under construction in Tirupati. - Photo: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

TIRUPATI: The road underbridge (RUB) project at DR Mahal Railway gate junction, which was moving at a snail's pace for a year, has at last started showing a semblance of pace. As the project was in limbo for quite a long time, the road remained closed for almost a year.

The TTD's second and third choultry complex is situated on the other side of the track and hence is crossed by thousands of devotees for getting shelter. In the absence of a proper carriageway the pilgrims, including children and the aged, are forced to walk through the mounds of earth to cross the track in the temple town's most crammed locality, thus risking their lives.

Shortest access

The railway gate provides the shortest access to the southern suburbs of the town and scores of villages on the other side. In the absence of the underbridge a motorcyclist has to invariably take a detour through the overbridge, situated a kilometre away.

It is to avoid this ordeal that a proposal to lay an underbridge has been made to the Railway Board by the municipality. The TTD has come forward to share the cost.

The Tirupati East police station situated near the track has been shifted recently, paving the way for its removal to build a bridge. Already, massive structures on the road, including the TTD's ancient SV Guest House, have been pulled down to facilitate road widening. Once completed, the Railway station road will cleave into two, with the left part leading to the Gandhi circle and further to RTC bus station and the right part climbing down into a depression under the railway track and finally to the other side of the town.

Sources with the agency executing the project says that the work will be finished in a couple of months and the road will be made ready for public transport before the onset of monsoon.

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