Around 50 residents of Sidhamahavir area of Puri sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding an over-bridge on the level crossing near Sidhamahavir rail gate of the Puri-Konark National Highway.
Under a banner of Sidhamahavir Rail Over-bridge Construction Steering Committee, the residents handed over a letter to Puri Collector Jyoti Prakash Das on Monday informing plights on a daily basis while crossing the rail gate.
They sent copies of letter to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Surface Transport and Waterways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Chief General Manager, East Coast Railways, Rajiv Vishnoi and the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Khorda.
In the letter, their concerns were over long jams of thousands of people, including buses, taxies and commercial vehicles, at both sides of level crossing during the train hours.
They cited that the level crossing is on the main road from Puri to Konark, Nimapara, Gop and Kakatpur area which is the second biggest connecting route to Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and other parts of State. Every day, nearly 2 lakh people use the road, but halt for hours when the gate is closed, the letter informed.
They also cited it is tourists and commercial vehicles, regular buses, cars and bikes which suffer inordinate delays during the crossing of trains through the level crossing. They told the people of Puri are worst sufferers as they have to halt 30 to 40 times daily before the gate since the rail line remains busy always. During the Rath Yatra and other festivals, it is impossible to get through due to a logjam at both sides as the gate is closed for hours due to more numbers of trains, informed the letter.
“It is a very old demand of Puri people to construct a flyover on the level crossing, which remains off for hours daily. People entering and exiting Puri suffer traffic jam at level crossing. Demands have been made several times in the past for an over bridge,” said Steering Committee coordinator Swadhina Kumar Panda.
He informed that in 2015 Nabakalebar Yatra, nearly Rs 100 crore was sanctioned for the over bridge and compensation to land losers for eviction, but that was not implemented for unknown reasons. He charged that it is a local politician, who not only opposed the over bridge for eviction of houses, but also helped sending back funds unused for his vote bank politics.