Slackness on part of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has increased heart beats of railway officials as height gauge barrier at Ajni railway bridge was removed leaving field open for movement of heavy vehicles. About two days back, civic machinery removed the only height gauge on Western part of bridge as it was left dangling dangerous after a dash by unidentified heavy vehicle. Since last few days there is unchecked movement of trailers and other heavy carriers thereby increasing the stress on the already dilapidated railway bridge. Now, Railways have issued warning that if by December 30, NMC fails to act, they will take steps to regulate traffic on the RoB in larger interest of safety of bridge. Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) after assessing the structure had capped maximum weight bearing capacity of Ajni RoB at 8 tonnes.

 

As such, Central Railway, Nagpur Division, officials asked NMC to put-up height gauge barriers on either end of bridge to stop movement of trucks, trailers and other such heavy vehicles. However within days of erection of the barrier, the one on Southern end came crashing down after one of the heavy vehicle got entangled in the height gauge. Since then no replacement was done and recently the other end height gauge too was left in dangerous position and hence was removed from the safety point of view. However given the speed with which civic machinery works, railway officials are increasingly worried about free run of heavy machines on the structurally weak Ajni RoB. So railway officials have dashed off a letter to NMC asking it to take rectification measures at the earliest and avoid trouble for commuters. The Hitavada contacted Ajay Pohekar, Superintendent Engineer, NMC, who said NMC is aware of the situation and are taking corrective steps at the earliest. Pohekar further added that today only he had given approval for placing of bars to reduce width to prevent entry of heavy vehicle on the bridge. the work is to be carried out by Traffic Department of NMC and instructions were issued to expedite it.

 

To a querry, Pohekar said rather than height gauge the bars would be more useful as barrier as prime task is to prevent entry of heavy vehicles. Past experience with height gauges was not very successful and NMC cannot afford to waste money if they are crashing down with regular frequency. However the other measures recommended by VNIT team has not been carried out till date by NMC. The one about destressing the bridge by removing excess layers of tar is pending with NMC which is citing lack of funds as an excuse to defer the work. Similarly, the replacement bridge is not yet in sight and though National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has included its in their DPR, it's fate is linked with proposed multimodal hub proposed at Ajni. With the project facing opposition on environment grounds, there is so far no progress on Ajni RoB, where NHAI has proposed eight laned cable stayed bridge.

 

As NMC is not financially capable, it is expecting State Government and Indian Railways to jointly fund the construction of new RoB at Ajni as current one is overdue for replacement. Even present design of RoB is problematic and is obstruction to free flow of traffic as daily traffic jams have became common at the spot. And once the bars meant to reduce width are put in place, the jams on Ajni bridge are likely to worsen and put citizens in more trouble. It is learnt that Railway have given deadline of December 30 to NMC to put in place measures to control entry of heavy vehicles on RoB or they would take up the task of sealing entry.