Resolving arm wrestle among Road, Metro and Transit in Kolkata

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jis

Permanent Way Inspector
Staff member
Administator
Moderator
AU Supporting Member
Gathering Team Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2003
Messages
39,127
Location
Space Coast, Florida, Area code 3-2-1
It all started when a rickety old road overbridge over a busy suburban line collapsed onto the railway at Majerhat in South Kolkata a while back. Fortunately there were few casualties. No one yet knows why the PWD was unaware of the sorry state of the bridge. It has been mentioned that there are many other such structures in such sorry shape all around Kolkata. Almost every year something or the other collapses in Kolkata. But I digress....

The first order of the day was to restore a road, so an emergency project was taken up to build an at grade crossing which was achieved in remarkably short order.

Then the battle began to build a replacement over bridge. The problem was that the original design submitted by the PWD (Public Works Department) intentionally or otherwise, forgot to take into account the planned route of a new elevated Metro line to be built in the same area. The PWD tried an end run around the whole issue by using a missive from the Chief Minister to hurry up construction and hoped that if they ignored the issue it would go away. Eastern Railway would have none of it, and they withdrew permission to proceed with construction over their property pending resolution. That brought matters to a head. What followed is found in this article:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/pwd-agrees-to-change-majerhat-rob-design-leave-space-for-metro-piers/articleshow/68055552.cms

The final resolution apparently was the State Secretary reading the riot act to the PWD and telling everyone to play nice since the state government and Kolkata both need both the new over bridge and the new Metro.

Fascinating case of three different arms of three different government agencies duking it out until a fourth empowered agent of a stake holder government intervenes.
 
If only we could get Washington to function like this! <_<
You want Washington to function like this?

No one yet knows why the PWD was unaware of the sorry state of the bridge. It has been mentioned that there are many other such structures in such sorry shape all around Kolkata. Almost every year something or the other collapses in Kolkata. But I digress....
 
You want Washington to function like this?
It already does to some extent, since no one was able to figure out what state WMATA was in until things started going crash, smash, bang. And they are still trying to dig themselves out of it. As it turns out the root cause of the failure of the track circuit detection system was the use of non-standard parts to cut costs - like, let us use clay instead of concrete. Maybe it will be OK - approach.

Though not as frequent, but structures keep collapsing in this country too. Things like Mianus River should never happen in the richest country in the world, but they do.

OTOH, I'd point out that the right of way for connecting to the new Hudson Tunnels from Penn Station was successfully preserved. So good things also happen here, though that was not due to any government efforts, but due to extreme diligence by a few individuals.

The interesting thing about the Majerhat case is that Eastern Railway did not have any direct impact on them of the failure of the PWD to account for the Metro. Kolkata Metro is a different Zone of Indian Railways, and the outfit that is responsible for building that particular line - RVNL is yet another separate organization, and PWD was trying to manipulate them into moving their structures out of the way at greater cost to them. Since they did not have possession of the necessary land they did not have the leverage to force anything. Eastern Railway chose to use the leverage they had to force the right thing to happen, which is commendable.

This also exposes the other interesting feature which makes the situation in Kolkata a bit worse than in New York, in terms of organizational confusion. There are essentially 9 organization plus a plethora of Mom and Pop private bus outfits that provide local transportation in Kolkata. On the rail side they are Eastern Railway Sealdah Division, Eastern Railway Howrah Division, South Eastern Railway Kharagpur Division, Metro Rail and Kolkata Tramways Company. On the road side there Kolkata State Transport, West Bengal State Transport, Southern West Bengal State Transport, and the Bus Division of Kolkata Tramways. It is a wonder that they have two consolidated fare structures on the road and suburban rail side. Metro is an entirely different matter. Suburban Rail and Metro might get a single fare instrument in the foreseeable future. The road side is an entirely different matter. It is an unholy mess.
 
I think jis explained it for me, but I was pointing out the sorry state of  what used to be the Model Democratic Governmental System for the World.

Wishing we had a Parlimentary System so we could "throw the bums out" when they play their Political  games. <_<
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I wish we could throw out our Members of Parliament who have recently defected from their parties, but we can't... They would loose their seats in fresh elections.

I think the "compartmentalisation" of responsibility in India is quite extreme...  The tourism ministry tries to make things easier with e-visa, yet the railway authorities make it almost impossible for foreigners to register and buy tickets, etc, etc.

Confusion and folk at cross-purposes happens all over the world of course, but somehow India seems to be especially good at it!

Ed.
 
It is much easier to register with IRCTC these days since they accept a foreign mobile number and are able to send text for authentication to a foreign mobile phone. I registered around Sept 2018 and it was a breeze.

BTW visas, including e-visas are the domain of the Ministry of External Affairs, not Ministry of Tourism.

Also BTW, the current bureaucracy was bestowed by the Brits on India. It was their attempt at realizing Bentham’s fantasies which they could not quite manage in the mother country. [emoji57]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I am happily registered at IRCTC myself, at least I was last year... :D

I use the Indiamike website a lot, and many foreign tourists to India still complain about problems registering at IRCTC, or often problems with the payment gateways. 

You have pointed out the problems, exactly: One ministry person says we need more tourists, let's create an e-visa to encourage more. Next ministry person at IRCTC says "Foreign tourist quota tickets now cost 50% extra, etc, etc. Someone else says" Foreign tourists can now book up to a year in advance with visa number". Someone else does not know e-visa not issued until two months before trip... etc... :D  

I used to like the old fashioned bureaucracy, where someone served you in a shop, someone else wrapped the items, someone else took the money, and someone else checked the goods bought against a bill of sale. Anyone could have done all the jobs, but as they say, it was always someone else's job!
 
The fact that the registration process is now the same for Indian mobile phone holders and foreign mobile phone holders is not documented well. The foreign ones involve an extra step of paying "foreign text messaging fee" that IRCTC charges for the privilege of using a foreign mobile phone number. Since I seldom use foreign tourist quotas, as they are more headache and cost than worth, I have never been asked for anything about visa etc.

When I registered they were just changing over from the rigmarole of sending copy of Passport and what not to the straightforward registration, so I did start off by following the previous process, but they emailed me saying that all that was unnecessary. Just use my +1 country code phone to register and be done with it. This works out fine for me since I do use that same phone worldwide using the per day of use roaming charge scheme that AT&T has, that gives me unlimited everything anywhere in the world for a fixed charge for just the days that I actually use. There are cheaper ways of getting some phone service, but not as convenient.
 
Coming back to the original topic, the joint survey of the area went well. PWD modified their plans to incorporate the piers for the Metro by shifting the approach ramp to the road overbridge. So finally Eastern Railway signed off on the modified plans on Friday last, and now construction can proceed on both the road overbridge and the Metro corridor.
 
Back
Top