Pedestrians scaling several feet high iron rod dividers of busy arteries such as Daily Market, Harmu Road, Sainik Market, Kanke Road, MG Marg has become a common sight that has caught the attention of the civic body now. looking at the pain hundreds of walkers have to suffer daily and the inconvenience caused to them, RMC Deputy Mayor, Sanjeev Vijaywargia has written a letter to the Public Works Department (PWD) a week ago asking for sufficient gaps in between.
“The department has approved the letter and will depute an agency to create cuts at specific distances at main stretches soon. The work will initiate from Daily Market within few days on experimental basis. After receiving the response, PWD personnel will further extend the task and will cover major routes. The problem will be sorted within stimulated time,” informed, RMC, Deputy Mayor, Sanjeev Vijaywargia.
People falling in different age groups scale these high iron rod dividers recklessly everyday. Such instances especially occur daily at Ranchi Main Road, Harmu Road stretching towards the Birsa Munda Rajpath and Doranda area. Notably, from GEl Church to Sujata Chowk, a commuter need to walk over 250 metres to find a gap to cross the road.
“Recently, a commuter had a narrow escape when he slipped and fell, almost coming under the wheels of a speeding motor bike. Several people in past have sustained injuries in a similar act while trying to scale the dividers at different locations,” said Manoj Mishra, a shop owner at Daily Market.
The Road Construction Department has erected iron grille dividers or has raised the height of the existing dividers, earlier this year at different places to streamline traffic and to give appealing look to the major itineraries. However, it simply forgot about keeping gaps for pedestrians at shorter distances to enable them cross from one side to the other. Quite often walkers reluctant to walk a long distance in the search of cut, rick the scaling up the iron grills which poses them to a great danger.
“We realise that this is a dangerous act and we are reluctant to cross the road like this. I have to reach school on time regularly to drop my kids located just opposite to my abode and taking turn from next lane takes 15-20 minutes. I too have sustained bruises several times while scaling the iron rods. The authorities are clueless to what they have done by putting these iron grilles on dividers, this must be checked and addressed immediately,” said Rajni Prasad, a commuters, who goes through similar situation almost everyday while crossing the road near Kishoreganj, Harmu. MV Sinha, who owns a garment shop, near Kishoreganj, said, “I witness the deadly stunts almost everyday. At the time of construction, few people have requested the labourers to leave some gap but that time none of them gave ears to the local residents’ plea. On city road with markets on both sides, one cannot expect travelers to walk for over 200 metres to find a gap to cross the road.”