Indore: Eight years later, Kesarbagh ROB finally to see the light of day

Union minister for communications and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad will inaugurate the Kesarbagh rail overbridge (ROB) in Indore on Sunday.

Union minister for communications and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad will inaugurate the Kesarbagh rail overbridge (ROB) in Indore on Sunday. The 800-metre rail overbridge project was hanging fire for the last eight years and was finally completed under the supervision of the Madhya Pradesh high court.

The 800-metre rail overbridge project was hanging fire for the last eight years and was finally completed under the supervision of the Madhya Pradesh high court. (Shankar Mourya/HT photo)

A prey to bureaucratic red tape and political slugfest, several politicians, including the chief minister, had earlier turned down the request to inaugurate the rail overbridge. Lok Sabha speaker and party’s MP from Indore, Sumitra Mahajan, had opted to stay away from controversial rail overbridge right from the beginning, while recently chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan too turned down the IDA’s request for formally opening the rail overbridge.

A few locals, supported by Congress legislator Jitu Patwari, on January 6 evening drove on the over-bridge in their vehicles as a symbolic protest against the prolonged delay in ROB’s construction. The IDA and its contractors had missed as many as 14 deadlines set by the Madhya Pradesh high court.

Sanjay Kamle, who had moved the high court against prolonged delay in completion of the ROB, said the act was a reaction to the IDA’s reluctant behaviour.

The contract for construction of the bridge was awarded on July 16, 2007 and it was slated to complete by July 15, 2008.