Edapally railway gate

2007-04-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Edappally is a place in the city of Kochi from where the National Highway NH-17 starts and continues up to Panvel, Maharashtra. It is considered to be the longest highway that goes through Kerala, India.

So some years back a proposal was made to declare this stretch into a National Highway (No.17) and to enable that they built a bridge over Varapuzha to connect it with Ernakulam. Today the bridge is very busy and they collect toll from four wheelers and heavy vehicles.

As it was quite obvious that a national highway is coming up so a need to build an overhead railway bridge at Edapally rail crossing must be very much on cards. The tender for the construction of the first phase of an over bridge at Edappally on the NH-17 and approach roads was issued in the year 2004. A decision on this was taken by the then Union Ministry of Surface Transport.

The Rs 13-crore project included the construction of a 1,775-metre over bridge and approach road, excluding the 45-metre bridge that is directly above the railway lines. Today the Railways completed the construction of the portion of the bridge above the railway line. But sadly the bridge touching the ground seems a distant reality.

According to sources it’s the NH Department who have to do the duty of joining the two ends of the bridge so that people could make use of it. But look at the sad state of the whole affair the bridge still stands idle depicting the "who cares" attitude of our system. The administration such as, The Kochi Mayor, MLA and MP are literally not bothered to take up the cause and relieve the people of their daily woes.

As usual the huge promises that the bridge and the joining road will be completed on a priority basis and I fail to understand why the administration and authorities take people for granted. I have been traveling through this road for the past 2-years and I have not seen any development on the bridge work. It has become normal for me to get stranded at this gate most of the time (95 percent) for the train to pass.

It is here that I have come to know how Railway gates play a major role in adding to your woes and to the already worsening traffic problems of the city. Why don't the administration understands that once the bridge is accomplished and two-lane road is opened the traffic snarls at Edapally level crossing will be a thing of the past.

The problems used to worsen when the railway gate malfunctioned, that too during peak hours holding up people including those who are on their way to the Amrita Hospital. Situation sometimes get out of hand due to the unruly behaviour of the private buses, who have no consideration for traffic rules and would just put their huge buses in front of cars or other small vehicles, a bullying act. This further blocks the oncoming traffic and by the time you are clear to go the gate closes again. I still remember to have stranded at Edapally for more than one hour, imagine the plight of Childrens, those people who are hanging on to buses footboard and elderly citizen.

Sometimes when the gates get locked, policeman would go at a distance and divert the coming traffic to take the South Kalamaserry route, which means to take an extra 10 km to reach the City. The policeman would gesture the diversion such a way as if it is the fault of the commuters that gates got locked.

It is really pity and surprising to note that no print or electronic media in Kerala every attempted to highlight this issue.

Another thing that I have noticed and quite surprised and amused is the kind of reaction the general public have towards this daily woes. Most of the people are just as cool as anything, since they accept it as a part of their life. The Kerala people are known for their protest, as they protest for all wrong reason (the recent one was for Saddam's Execution), but here I see literally nobody fussing out on such lousy treatment being meted out to them by the administration.

People these days do not have the guts and dare to protest for the wrongdoing and ask accountability from these people. Let me ask the administration and the responsible people as to why cannot they change their attitude and start being responsible. Countries like Thailand and Srilanka have great roads so why cannot we have that.

Why are the people taken for granted? Is it because they nobody has the time and guts to protest, since all are turning to be selfish. Or is it because that the public has to face the wrath just for the reason that they voted such peoples. The Edapally stretch from nowhere looks like a National Highway. Aren’t we ashamed to claim ourselves that we are a growing economy? Our roads at some places can never accommodate two Maruti 800s, we want the Corollas, Skoda and Mercedes but we have scares respect for traffic rules. Our MPs openly boasts of taking huge bribes and we proudly stand giggling by their sides.

To build an overhead bridge takes more than 5 years (still counting) for completion, so what kind of Economy are we talking about.

Indians think about it, we are still to go a long way.

Edapally railway gate Woes

Edapally railway gate