Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy were told by Southern Railway counsel P.T. Ramkumar that a RUB costs approximately Rs.2.5 crore while it costs over Rs. 10 crore to construct a ROB across a railway crossing.

TAMIL NADU
Constructing a Rail Over Bridge or Road Under Bridge depends upon traffic density, Southern Railway tells Madras High Court
Legal Correspondent
CHENNAI 29 SEPTEMBER 2020 00:34 IST
UPDATED: 29 SEPTEMBER 2020 00:34 IST

The submission was made during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by Villupuram resident, seeking a direction to construct a ROB instead of a RUB across a level crossing at Nedimozhiyanur village in the district.
The Southern Railway on Monday informed the Madras High Court that decisions on constructing either a Rail Over Bridge (ROB) or Road Under Bridge (RUB) across railway crossings are taken depending upon the traffic density in the localities concerned.

First Division Bench of Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy were told by Southern Railway counsel P.T. Ramkumar that a RUB costs approximately Rs.2.5 crore while it costs over Rs. 10 crore to construct a ROB across a railway crossing.

The submission was made during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by E. Venkadesan of Tindivanam Taluk in Villupuram district seeking a direction to construct a ROB instead of a RUB across a level crossing at Nedimozhiyanur village in the district.

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His counsel K. Sakthivel told the court that construction of a RUB would lead to stagnation of rain water and drainage and cause much inconvenience to the users. He also produced photographs to prove water stagnation in a RUB that had been constructed nearby.

On the other hand, Mr. Ramkumar said that the traffic density in Nedimozhiyanur was very less and hence it does not require construction of a ROB which costs a lot. He also stated that many farm land would have to be acquired for constructing a ROB.

He said the Villupuram Collector had granted approval for constructing a RUB only after taking all these issues into consideration. The concrete box required for the RUB at Nedimozhiyanur was ready but the villagers were not allowing the work to be carried out, he added.

After recording his submissions, the judges permitted the construction of the RUB with a direction to the Southern Railway to ensure that there was no flooding in the RUB during rainy days and enough facilities were made to ensure that the water gets pumped out.

The court also ordered that free flow of traffic should be ensured at the spot.

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