Road to Edappally ROB reaching nowhere

KOCHI:  There is no end in sight to the woes of people from Edappally and Paravur side with the construction of the Edappally railway overbridge (ROB) reaching nowhere.

Though road blocks at the railway level cross have become the order of the day, the authorities have taken little effort to complete the construction of the ROB so far.

On Wednesday irate over the traffic block caused by the non-functioning of the boom of the gate locals blocked trains. “We have completed the spans of the bridge which fall within the Railway limits,” Railways Area Manager George John K said.

But the construction of the remaining spans to be completed by the NHAI and state PWD has been pending for a long time now.

Being the road leading to Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and short cut to places like Paravur, Kodungalloor and Guruvayur, the traffic along the road is high.

When the railway gate is closed for the trains to pass through, the road immediately gets choked with vehicles. When the level cross is re-opened, stubborn motorists zig zag through other occluded vehicles.

In such efforts, the vehicles ram into the railway gate and it gets defunct.

“There were many incidents of vehicles hitting the gate and damaging it. We would take action against the erring drivers in such cases,” said George.

One of the other reasons for the road block was traffic regulations put by the Railways due to the works of Vallarpadom railway line. “There were traffic regulations in the area due to the construction of Vallarpadom railway line. But the works have been completed and so there isn’t any traffic regulation now,” he said.