'City corporation has to allocate funds for widening of overbridges'.

Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. (KRCL) recently said that the Railways cannot allocate funds for augmenting the capacity of road overbridges or road underbridges to match the growth in road traffic.

It is the responsibility of the local agencies or the Union or State government, it said.

Responding to a plea by the Mangaluru City Corporation to widen the overbridges on Surathkal-MRPL Road and Kulai-Kaana Road, KRCL’s Karwar Regional Railway Manager Mohammed Aasim Sulaiman said that the corporation would have either to pay KRCL to widen the bridges or construct them on its own under KRCL’s supervision.

At a review meeting called by Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, an engineer from the city corporation said that they had proposed to widen the Surathkal-MRPL Road to 30 m (six-lane) and the existing overbridge was just 7.5 m wide. He urged KRCL to widen the overbridge to at least 25 m.

The engineer also said that the corporation wanted to widen the Kulai-Kaana Road from the present two-lane to four-lane and the overbridge on the road was just 6.8 m wide. That overbridge too would have to be widened, he said.

Mr. Sulaiman, however, said that KRCL could not fund any such projects and it had been the rule across the country that the agencies concerned with road traffic would have to get the projects done at their own cost.

If the city corporation sends a proposal, KRCL would approve it without any pooling of funds.

Mr. Kateel said that if the corporation did not have enough monies for the project, corporate social responsibility funds from industries in the region, including the MRPL, might be utilised.

He asked the corporation to first prepare a plan and estimates and send a request to him.

THE HINDU