Residents urge railway level-crossing bridge

Residents urge railway level-crossing bridge
DH News Service,Bangalore:

In the wake of a car-train mishap which occurred under the Lingarajpuram Flyover a week ago, the residents of the locality took to the streets on Thursday. Led by Dalithara and Minority Pragathipara Rakshana Vedike (DMPRV), people in and around Lingarajpuram staged a protest demanding immediate construction of a railway level crossing bridge below the flyover and to deploy guards at the level crossing for the safety of people.
More than 300 residents marched from Kariyanapalya on the flyover and converged at the railway track under the flyover. They later submitted a memorandum to the Railway Local Engineer. “School children, women, people with physical disabilities are facing a lot of trouble as there is no space to commute. We will protest indefinitely if the Government and the Railway department do not provide a level crossing here at Lingarajapuram” said M Raju, president, DMPRV.
Ravindran, a physically disabled person, said, “The flyover is narrow and there is no footpath on it for people to walk. I cannot use the flyover to commute from one end of Lingarajpuram to the other due to lack of space for the movement of wheelchair”.
“Women and children are finding it very difficult to commute ever since the Railway Department closed the passage here. Children and adults with physical disabilities are facing enormous problems as they have to travel upto one kilometre in their wheel chair to travel to the other side of the railway track. There are many schools located in this vicinity and the school children are late due to the closure of the passage” said Raniamma, staff, Divya Shanthi School at Lingarajapuram.
A Railway Protection Force official said, “A railway level crossing is not possible at Lingarapuram due to the poor visibility caused by the construction of buildings. However the Railway Department has already given clearance for construction of an underpass for the easy commutation of pedestrians and light vehicles”.
The official further said that most trains were being diverted from City railway station and routed to Yeshwantpur Terminal due to the over crowding at the city railway station terminal.