Panathur railway crossing gate height limiter falls

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A height restriction barrier near the Panathur railway crossing collapsed on Monday, disrupting traffic on the already busy stretch.

Fortunately, no civilian was injured in the mishap, despite the stretch having continuous traffic. Citizens Movement – East Bengaluru, an NGO, took to Twitter and called out the incident.

“Panathur railway crossing gate height limiter has fallen. Luckily, nothing came under. Very serious issue. These types of death traps are spread across the length and breadth of #Bengaluru! @AshwiniVaishnaw sir, is there any mechanism in place to inspect these installations?” they tweeted. HAL Airport traffic police also issued an advisory to commuters on the route on Twitter.

“Our staff and officers are trying to remove the barrier off the road. Traffic movement will be a bit slow towards Kadubeesanahalli. Commuters please be aware of this,” they wrote while also tagging Traffic Commissioner MA Saleem.

A Twitter account claimed that the barrier was installed by the Mahadevapura Task Force only two months ago in order to restrict sand trucks and heavy transport vehicles, in turn reducing the congestion at Panathur railway cross.

“It was just installed two months back. Hope there is no 40% commission involved, as it could impact some lives and families. Can we know if there are any quality issues in installations?” the account questioned.

Panathur is a key link that connects Kadubeesanahalli on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) and Varthur. The narrow underpass below the Hosur railway line has turned into a nightmare for motorists on the route, especially during the peak hours.

In a similar dreadful mishap that took place recently and revealed the issue of poor infrastructure in the city, a 28-year-old woman and her two-year-old child died after bars of an underconstruction metro pillar collapsed on them on the Outer Ring Road (ORR).