The Hindu

MANGALORE, Jun 1: Traffic jams at Pandeshwar are becoming an order of the day, causing undue delay for the road-users in reaching their destinations.

The road connects the central business areas of the city to Bolar, Jeppu, and the hational highway leading to Thokkuttu, Talapady, Manjeshwar and Kasargod in Kerala. A large number of people from western part of the city use this stretch to visit the Mangaladevi temple.

People complain that the railway gate is usually kept closed for long duration “unnecessarily”, each time a train passes even as the number of vehicles plying on the road was increasing by the day. Authorities blame the unwieldy vehicle users for the mess being created near the railway level-crossing.

On Saturday afternoon, the vehicles had lined up till Mangalore South Police Station, about half-a-kilometre from the level-crossing. Harish, who owns a tailoring shop on the road, and B. Babu, an autorickshaw driver, said that the gate was kept closed for almost 10 minutes before the passing of trains and another 10 minutes after the trains crossed the gate. K. Taranath, a businesXan, said it was frustrating to wait even after the train passed.

There was no reason for the gates to be closed for so long, they added. They were unanimous in pointing that until two months ago the gate was being opened immediately after the trains passed. Police officials said that the level-crossing was less than a km away from goods shed near Bunder and hence the trains would be moving slowly there.

K. Prabhakar, a social activist and resident of the area, said that the gate was being closed twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon.

“The schedule of closure is always at a time when the traffic is at its peak,” he said. Sub-inspector Gopalakrishna Bhat, of Traffic (East), said that this problem had surfaced both at Pandeshwar and Mahakali-Padipu level-crossings. “If you have an emergency on hand, you had it,” Mr. Bhat said. He said that construction of underpasses at the two level-crossings was the only solution for this problem.

Another police official said that the problem could only get worse unless some steps were taken, immediately.

Increasing number of vehicles and narrow roads were also to blame, he added. Southern Railway Area Officer A. Md. Nisar said the level-crossing had been recently brought under the standard safety norms.

“Once the gates are locked, they cannot be manually opened until the train crossed a fixed distance to activate the circuit connecting it. The gatekeeper can open it only after that,” he said and added that all level-crossings were being brought under the norms laid down by Safety Commissioner for Railways.

Earlier, anyone could open these gates and this was unsafe, he said.