Residents of Bajal area have found a novel way to vent out their anger against the administration over the delay in completing the work on the road underbridge on Padil-Bajal Road near Mangaluru Junction Railway Station here.
On Sunday, they erected a banner and performed mock puja, inaugurating a ‘swimming pool and a mosquito breeding centre’, as water has stagnated beneath the railway tracks because of the incomplete work.
The work was taken up in last August and was expected to be completed by this February. Though the railways has completed the work on its portion by pushing concrete boxes, the approach road on Bajal side is yet to be constructed.
The Southern Railway has blamed the Mangaluru City Corporation for the delay, stating it did not submit modified designs for the approach road. Despite repeated reminders to corporation commissioner, the matter was not resolved. District in-charge Minister B. Ramanath Rai recently blamed the recently-transferred commissioner Hepsiba Rani Korlapati for the delay. The former Mayor Shashidhar Hegde said the commissioner sat on the file for over three months.
Mr. Rai said the modified designs were being submitted to the railways immediately. The railways, however, would not take up the work till the monsoon ended.
Abhishek Shetty, a resident of the area, told The Hindu that the residents of Bajal, Jalligudde, Veeranagara, Faisalnagara and surrounding areas are fed up with the inordinate delay.
In shambles
As the only approaching main road to their areas is in shambles for nearly a year, residents are forced to commute on lengthy deviated routes, he said. Hence, they have adopted this novel way of exhibiting their anger, Mr. Shetty said.
