Abhijith N Kolpe
Pics: Ramesh Pandith
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Jul 5: The never ending traffic congestion problems at Padil look to continue for motorists as the work on the long-awaited railway underpass on the Mangaluru-Bengaluru highway (National Highway 75) which was supposed to be open for traffic by March 2017, is still in progress. The construction of the parallel railway underpass was further delayed as Palakkad Railway Division planned to start track doubling work.

The new underpass would help vehicles to take alternate routes and avoid traffic congestion on the existing two-lane. The underpass was supposed to open for public in March 2017 as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had completed 90 percent of the work. The intervention of Palakkad Railway Division asking the highway authority to provide extra space for an additional track, delayed the functioning of railway underpass for public.

Padil underpass, located just five kilometres away from Mangaluru city, adds to the list of delayed development works, which include the Mangaluru-BC Road four lane road which was planned six years ago.

A Challenging Task

The task of building an underpass with the train in function was quite a challenge for NHAI. They had to dig a huge tunnel and push a concrete box when train was running above the underpass. NHAI even received warnings from the railway department on damage being done to the existing track.

The underpass was constructed with hydraulic technology. The workers inserted temporary girders beneath the lines to pave way for pushing 10 concrete boxes into the tunnel which is placed one after the other. The underpass was built using the box pushing technology where a pre-cast box would be pushed under the existing railway track.

Never-ending Routine for Commuters

Traffic congestion at Padil has become a daily routine. The underpass, once completed, would facilitate the smooth functioning of the traffic and eliminate the perpetual traffic at the existing two-lane underpass. Traffic congestion had become a common sight at Padil ever since the start of the construction work of the underpass few years ago. It would be a nightmare for the motorists in the monsoon when soil would wear away, flow down to the road and make the road mucky.

Speaking to daijiworld, Samson Vijay Kumar, project director, NHAI said, "The box pushing work of Padil railway underpass has been completed. Now, we need to insert an additional box into the tunnel after the railway department proposed to built an additional railway track. We expect the work to be completed soon. The underpass should start functioning within a month."