Rs 15-crore Kartarpura underpass plan may fail without encroachment removal

Jaipur: The Jaipur Development Authority (JDA)’s plan to widen the Kartarpura Railway Underpass at a cost of approximately Rs 15 crore risks losing much of its purpose unless authorities clear encroachments on the key approach road linking Imli Phatak and Kartarpura Canal on the Mahesh Nagar side of the Imli Phatak.A section of JDA officials has raised concern that the proposed expansion of the underpass, located around 700 metres from Imli Phatak, will remain underused if the narrow connecting stretch is not widened. The road, which is expected to divert traffic away from the heavily congested Imli Phatak Tiraha and towards Sahakar Marg through the underpass, currently narrows to between 18 to 25 feet at several points.JDA is already planning two slip lanes at the Imli Phatak Tiraha to ease congestion of the Tiraha. But officials say those lanes alone will not be enough to absorb the traffic load. The underpass widening is being treated as the second major intervention in the area’s traffic redesign.According to officials, the broader strategy is simple: instead of forcing vehicles to cross the bottleneck at Imli Phatak, traffic should move directly towards the Kartarpura underpass and emerge onto Sahakar Marg. That objective, however, depends entirely on whether the 700-metre approach road can function as a proper corridor.“Under the Master Plan, this stretch is supposed to be 60 feet wide. In reality, officials say, encroachments have reduced it drastically. The affected stretch includes small shops and commercial structures in front of colonies such as Radha Krishna Nagar and Chitragupta Nagar. Some officials allege that despite the planning requirement, action has been slow because of pressure from various quarters,” stated a JDA engineer.A senior JDA official said the DPR for this project is ready, though the project remains at the proposal stage and awaits approval from NWR. Officials claimed that the colonies and the road along this stretch were transferred to the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) in 2018, meaning any anti-encroachment drive now requires coordination between JDA and JMC.