In a fight for early completion of much-delayed Ram Jhula project, the Vidarbha Taxpayers Association (VTA) has filed an intervention to represent the voice of taxpayers whose hard-earned is being unnecessarily wasted owing to delay in its completion.
Terming the respondents, including MSRDC and Railways as lethargic, the intervener has squarely blamed them for delay in project which led to escalation of its costs. It stated that the original cost of construction was Rs 45.95 crore which is now nearly doubled to Rs 88.74 crore.
Expressing serious concern over big hole in Butibori railway over bridge (RoB) that was opened just four months back, VTA demanded that Ram Jhula must live up to the expectations of citizens as existing bridge constructed by British lasted for more than a century without any safety problems. It raised serious doubts over decision to construct cable-stayed bridge at the place despite the fact that normal bridge lasted for over a century.
The intervener contended that suspension/cable-stayed bridges are the costliest to construct as compared to conventional ones. They are ideal in case of rivers, seas or other water bodies as there is a considerable distance between pillars and columns, which allows ships or hovercrafts to pass comfortably. "But, here the situation is entirely different. It is not understood as to why a new experiment of cable-stayed bridge is made at the cost of public money. The deciding authority intends to make a pomp and show of creating a landmark in the city without caring for its safety measures and guarantee," VTA said. It demanded guarantee of 100 years from respondents for Ram Jhula.
The taxpayers' body said that it will provide a technical assistance to respondents in ensuring safety measures of the project by seeking assistance from city-born Nemkumar Bahthia, who is a senior research chairman at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and an expert in this area.
The PIL was filed by Nagpur Chamber of Commerce Limited (NCCL) as a last resort to see that stalled work on Ram Jhula, the six-lane cable-stayed railway overbridge near Santra Market gets rolling. They urged the high court to direct Afcons Infrastructure, one of the respondents and contractor, to execute the work as per the agreement on January 17, 2006. The NCCL has highlighted that work tender was allotted to Afcons on January 25, 2006. The project was to be completed in 42 months. In the last five years only 30% work has been completed. The cable-stayed bridge is not even halfway constructed despite the fact that crores of rupees belonging to taxpayers were already spent on the project and the cost is escalating with each passing day.
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