Pandeshwar level crossing gate to remain closed for two days for annual maintenance

Those travelling from South Mangaluru to the central business district and back will have to endure difficulties at least for two days as the Pandeshwar level crossing (LC) gate on Mangaladevi Road will remain closed from Saturday night till Tuesday morning.

Those travelling from South Mangaluru to the central business district and back will have to endure difficulties at least for two days as the Pandeshwar level crossing (LC) gate on Mangaladevi Road will remain closed from Saturday night till Tuesday morning.

The Southern Railway’s Palakkad division, in a release, said the LC gate at Pandeshwar on the Mangaluru Central-Bunder Goods Shed stretch will remain closed from 8 p.m. of October 19 to 8 a.m. of October 22 to facilitate annual maintenance work at the site. It has urged road users to make use of the Hoige Bazar LC gate on Hoige Bazar Road.

During the shutdown, officials concerned would open the equipment at the LC gate, examine them, and rectify faults, if any. The railways would also attend to the road surface abutting the LC Gate. Numerous potholes and craters exist on the road surface near the gate hampering free flow of traffic.

However, the railways appears not making any effort to address road-users’ woes using the Pandeshwar LC gate, at least by widening the road stretch near the gate. Because of the cramped narrow two-lane carriageway about 100 m on either side of the level crossing gate, road-users struggle to negotiate the stretch, particularly when the gate was closed and opened for traffic.