Photo: Lingaraj Panda

DANGER ZONE: Commuters prefer to take the dangerous short cut to reach the platform at Berhampur railway station.

BERHAMPUR: Usually haste shown to lay foundation stones by leaders is not repeated while taking up the project. Passengers getting down from trains on platform number two and three of Berhampur railway station still dare to jump over railway tracks as the construction of a second foot bridge at the railway station is yet to materialise.

Many of these railway passengers may have forgotten that with much fanfare Minister of State for Railways Naranbhai J. Rathwa had laid the foundation stone for construction of a second foot over bridge at Berhampur station on October 11 in 2004. The plank of the foundation stone is fixed on the wall of the railway station near the office of the station superintendent. But the foot over bridge is yet to materialise.

Construction work for it has started recently. Foundation for pillars on one side has been laid on platform number one and some pillars have been erected.

"This delay of more than two years to complete a foot over bridge speaks of the political gimmickry of foundation stone laying ceremonies", said Manoj Patnaik, secretary of the Ganjam Bar Association. Greatest irony is that after completion of this delayed project there would again be a rush of political leaders to inaugurate it, he added.

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