Hyderabad: Level Crossing No 254 hits daily commuters

Hyderabad: The Safilguda locals have been wondering when the Safilguda level crossing (LC no 254) re-open. Though the locals and the commuters were given a word that the LC would be opened in 15 days after it's shut down, it has been almost four months since the closure of the LC. The holier than thou attitude of the officials has been causing a lot of inconvenience to commuters of Anandbagh, Malkajgiri and Sainikpuri. More surprisingly, the top officials of SCR (South Central Railway) are also unaware about the closure of the LC.

Locals pointed out that there was a notice served stating that the gate would be closed from January 20 to February 8 for taking up gate repair works. However, four months pass the deadline, the gate still remains closed. There is a chaotic situation everyday on the Neredmet-Safilguda road. Commuters coming from various neighboring localities are facing difficulties to commute as this LC is the linking path which connects various areas.

"The residents in these areas have been waiting for ROB but everything went in vain", Ravi Kumar, a student and a resident of Safilguda said. "First off all we have to pass through these level crossings to go towards Secunderabad and any diversion becomes too long.

Daily traffic jams at these level crossings are a big menace and along with this now the closure of level crossing has become a daily challenge, last month we had a medical emergency at our home and we had to face a lot of problems to reach the hospital ."

"For four-months gates have been closed, actually they were supposed to open in the month of February now daily it has become a challenge for us to take the long routes to reach our destination, just to reach the other side of the gate we need to go from Anandbhag underpass which is taking almost 25 minutes and the reason for the closure is not known," said Shrutika, IT employee and resident of Safilguda.

"Daily we are facing challenge to reach our destination, as per the notice put up on the gate clearly states that gates remain closed from January 20 to February 8 but despite the completion of works, the gate is still not open," said Robin Zaccheus, social activist

When the reason for the closure was asked to the senior officer of SCR, he said they were not aware why the gate was closed.