The work on Futala Viewing Gallery and cement concrete (CC) road project is progressing fast. It is a Central Road Fund (CRF) project and the cost is around Rs 113 crore. The entire project will be completed in time.
There are three components of the project:
- Viewing Gallery with Projector Room
- Multilevel Parking Plaza
- Cement Concrete Road
Viewing Gallery with Projector Room:
- The length of the gallery is 350 m and the seating capacity is 4,000.
- Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) is developing a multimedia laser show in Futala lake and people can watch it from the gallery.
- A project room is being built besides the gallery for the show.
- The gallery will be fully covered with a 350 m long tensile roof.
- There will be parking space near the gallery.
- It will have parking slots for 13 cars, 24 two-wheelers and 24 bicycles.
Multilevel Parking Plaza:
- A multilevel parking will be built near the gallery so that people coming to watch the show can park their vehicles.
- It will be a mechanized puzzle parking.
- There will be 1,000 parking slots for cars and 305 slots for two-wheelers.
Cement Concrete Road:
- The length of the road is 2.86 kilometer.
- It is along the Futala lake in rear of the gallery and on approaches.
- It is 18 m wide and is 90% complete.
- The Nagpur Heritage Committee reviewed the project on June 15 without any objection.
- Earlier, Maha Metro, as per directions of Public Works Department (PWD), had planned to construct a road tunnel below the gallery.
- However, this tunnel was dropped in January 2019 and the final drawing approved by PWD in October 2019 did not include the tunnel.
- NIT’s consultant for the multimedia laser show had told Maha Metro that the tunnel wall below the gallery will have acoustics problems and other technical issues.
- Hence, Maha Metro prepared a new design.
- As per the new design a cement concrete road is being built behind the gallery instead.
Nagpur Metro ridership:
Meanwhile, the ridership of Nagpur Metro continues to increase by the day after June 7 and is fast approaching pre-Covid lockdown levels i.e. January and February 2021.
- The ridership in weekdays of February 2021 was over 20,000, while a record 56,000 Nagpurians had travelled by Metro on January 26 this year.
- Due to safety precautions taken by Maha Metro, people are regaining confidence in travelling by the Nagpur Metro.
- Metro trains and stations are disinfected frequently.
- While sanitizing metro stations, emphasis is on areas which are occupied or mostly used.
- The sanitization activity is as per norms and procedures.
- The metro staff wears masks and hand gloves all the time.
- Maha Metro staff regularly sanitizes all the touch points in the trains and stations.
- While the agency encourages digital fare transactions, its staff sanitizes the currency notes paid by passengers using ultra-violet rays.
- These notes are kept separately.
- These advisories issued by the central and state governments and the local authorities are regularly communicated to the commuters.
- Regular announcements are made on public address systems, both at stations and trains, in this regard.
Zero Mile Metro Station to be renamed as ‘Zero Mile Freedom Park Station’:
Meanwhile, on the occasion of the country’s 75th Independence Day, the Prime Minister’s Office will name the metro station at Zero Mile as ′′ Zero Mile Freedom Park Station ′′ at the Amrit Jubilee ceremony.
- According to this, the committee will place the historic cannon found while doing development works at Kasturchand Park Ground at Zero Mile Freedom Park Station.
- This proposal of Mahametro Nagpur has been approved at the meeting of Nagpur Heritage Conservation Committee on Tuesday (June 15).
- Meanwhile, Despite adverse conditions prevailing due to Covid-19 pandemic, Maha Metro recently successfully held a trial run of a Metro train on Reach-2 between Zero Mile and Kasturchand Park stations.
- This is the first step towards making Reach-2 (Sitabuldi to Automotive Square) operational in December 2021.
- Reach-4 (Sitabuldi to Prajapati Nagar) will also be made operational by the end of this year.
- A distance of 1 km was covered at a speed of 20 km per hour.
- The work of signaling, overhead equipment (OHE) and track had been completed in this portion and proved to be perfect during the trial run.
- Work on the remaining portion of Reach-2 is going on at full swing under leadership of Maha Metro Managing Director Dr Brijesh Dixit.
- This portion of Reach-2 is very important as the track passes near Vidhan Bhavan, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Kasturchand Park.
Source: Nagpur Metro-Update
