Poor condition of the Udupi Railway Station Road

By Benedict Noronha, Advocate Udupi
Bellevision Media Network

Udupi, 21 June 2011:  The Udupi Railway Station Road from the Manipal Main Road  up to Konkan Graphics point is maintained by the Udupi City Municipal Corporation and it is in a miserable condition. Immediately after this end, there was a deep culvert  for about 5 meters and during heavy rains about one foot deep  water gets accumulated causing great inconvenience to both pedestrians and vehicles. There has been also another dangerous point at the  southern end of the concrete road with a deep cut and small vehicles like Maruthi 800,  Santro, Omni, etc. would find extremely difficult to negotiate this patch of the road as their front bumper would hit the ground because of the deep cut causing grave damage to the vehicles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bad condition of the station road including the potholes was brought to the notice of the concerned Senior Engineer of the Konkan Railways by me through a letter dated  19  April 2011. However,  there was no action till 31 May 2011. I had even discussed this problem  with the Senior Engineer and even the Station Master over telephone and also  I had to personally met the Senior Engineer and told him that if the road is not repaired and potholes are not filled in with good material by Saturday the 11 June 2011, a case would be filed against the officials in the Consumer Court as the vehicle owners and the complainant are consumers and entitled for relief as no action was taken or reply was given to the letter highlighting the bad condition of the road was given as far back as on 19 April 2011.

 

 

 

 

Following my talk with the Senior Engineer and the Commercial Manager, they have taken some action and the pot-holes were filled. However,  due to heavy rains the work was not executed in a fair manner. On enquiry,  the officials  have promised to hand over the Station Road to the City Municipality and also assured that good parking places for vehicles would be  provided as soon the monsoon is over. The deep cut at the southern road end is filled up and still it requires proper finishing. The tragedy of the matter is that the concerned officials are not doing their duties as required and therefore there must be some disciplinary action against them. This matter will be taken up with the Konkan Railways and the Railway Ministry for proper care and maintenance of the Station Road and a proper  parking place at the Udupi Railway Station.