Mayor writes to Union rail min for opening passage closed for construction

Ludhiana: In order to provide temporary relief to commuters and residents living near Pakhowal road railway crossing, mayor Balkar Sandhu has written a letter to Union railway minister Piyush Goyal, seeking help from the railways in opening a passage for the movement of vehicular traffic on a railway crossing near Sidhwan Canal. This relief is being demanded as temporary measure to reduce burden on Pakhowal road railway crossing.
The mayor said that already there was a lot of pressure of traffic on Malhar, Ferozepur and Pakhowal roads due to the ongoing construction activities. Thus people are facing a tough time and in coming days the problem would increase near Pakhowal road railway crossing, where construction work of a railway over/under-bridge has already started.
While confirming the same, Sandhu said, “A few years ago it was a railway crossing but then the railways closed it to vehicular movement, though the movement on foot is still possible. I have requested the railway minister to kindly look into the matter and get this crossing open for vehicular movement as well so that people should utilise the same.” He said he had not received any reply till date but he was hopeful of some solution.
Meanwhile, a resident of BRS Nagar, IP Singh, said, “In case the construction work on the Pakhowal road railway crossing picks up pace, there will be difficulty in using this road.” He said this closed crossing is not far off and is between Shastri Nagar and Pakhowal road railway crossing. He said it should be opened for the movement of vehicles.
Another resident from Sarabha Nagar Kuljit Singh said so many construction activities were going on in a very small portion of the city and it was obvious that traffic problems would occur, but by taking certain steps the problems could be reduced to some extent.
The work on the Pakhowal road ROB/RUB has been started and digging for the underpasses has also started. The civic body has fixed the target for the completion of this project as December 2021. Now, it will be seen whether it will be completed by then or not.