Nagpur: Godhani Gram Panchayat Sarpanch Deepak Raut has approached state’s public works department (PWD) demanding shifting of hundreds of electric poles standing in the middle of the 6.6km Zingabai Takli-Godhani-Bokhara Road that is being widened and concretized.
If PWD fails to shift the electric poles, gram panchayat member Nitin Langde has threatened to file a contempt petition in the high court.
In 2017, Union minister Nitin Gadkari had sanctioned Rs35 crore. through Central Road Fund for widening the road from 9 metre to 18 metre.
Earlier, the narrow road was causing frequent traffic jams. The road widening project brought much relief to motorists using this busy stretch. “As the road widened, the electric poles adjacent to the old road are now in the middle, defeating the road widening purpose. Now, these poles are not only causing problem for smooth movement of vehicles, but also accidents,” Raut wrote to the PWD.
A senior official from MSEDCL said that they had already submitted to the PWD an estimation of Rs3 crore required to shift around 400 electric poles and eight DP structures from the road. It was submitted much before the road’s estimation was prepared. But it was ignored by the PWD, the official said.
The work has also reduced the electrical accident clearance guidelines, he said explaining the road height has been increased by almost three to four feet resulting into failure of clearance criteria of electric cables.
PWD superintending engineer Vidyadhar Sardeshmukh was not available for comments.
In the past, a city based NGO Janmanch had filed a petition in Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court that directed the NMC to remove all poles standing on the middle of 47 roads after widening. The high court has also set a deadline.
“Despite this, how the PWD could ignore electric poles coming in the way of road widening work,” Langde said.
TOI found that there are concrete paver blocks around the base of the poles. This extra wide area of the road now has several electric poles and even transformers. “Apart from posing a danger to road users, these poles reduce the carriage width of the road resulting in massive cost of concretization going to waste,” said Piyush Janbandhu, a resident of Govind City in Zingabai Takli locality.
Zingabai Takli corporator and former deputy mayor Sandip Jadhav questioned how can the PWD fail to include the shifting of utilities while preparing estimate of the road widening project. Raut also pointed out that the PWD did not even consider utilities like water pipelines and electric cables to be shifted. “Actually, it is also a contempt of court by the state PWD,” said Raut.
Jadhav said the authorities should take steps to complete the road widening work as soon as possible. He would also be approaching the state PWD demanding allocation of funds for shifting of poles.