Nagpur – Recently Shri Nitin Gadkari ji – Hon’ble Union Minister for Transport & Member of Parliament of Nagpur had said before press that he will drop project of Inter Modal Station (IMS) as proposed at Ajni Nagpur as the citizens doesn’t want it. This statement shocked almost every concerned citizens of Nagpur and taking this issue on topmost priority, key associations of Nagpur got together in support of IMS Ajni.
Butibori Manufacturers Association (BMA), MIDC Industries Association (MIA), Nagpur Chamber of Commerce (NCCL), Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce (NVCC), Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED), Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA) and Vidarbha Taxpayers Association (VTA) hereby submit our absolute support in favour of Inter Modal Station (IMS) as proposed at Ajni, Nagpur.
We strongly believe that green cover is extremely important, but that shouldn’t be a barrier for development, which is specifically futurist and of utmost requirement in nature.
Inter-modal Station (IMS) is a passenger terminal infrastructure which integrates various transportation modes like rail, road, mass rapid transit system (MRTS), bus rapid transit (BRT) and other para-modal transportation modes. Inter-modal stations allow passengers to change transportation modes during transit without leaving the station premises.
IMS also aim to reduce city congestion by aggregation of transportation nodes in the city, by effective city evacuation and by eliminating traffic due to transit passengers. IMS provides improved passenger convenience as various transport modes operate from the same premises, bringing synergies into the available infrastructure.
IMS facility will include world-class amenities like Integrated ticket counters, transit platforms, travelators, lifts, spacious waiting rooms, retail shops, food courts etc. leading to improved convenience and comfort for transit passengers. And is being designed to cater lakhs of passenger per day, which to our knowledge is proposed in area of 45 acres in phase-I.
This also includes expansion of existing three Ajni station platform to seven and 140 bus bay, with separate arrival and departure floors for better management. The terminal building will have common facilities like waiting area, toilets, lounges, food courts; Bus and Railway amenities like ticket counters, cloak room, kiosk, VIP Rooms, Revenue Office, Dormitories, Maintenance Room, etc.
We totally respect sentiments of environmental concern citizens as they suggest that IMS should be shifted to Khapri. However, we strongly believe that IMS at Khapri will totally defeat the purpose of Inter Modal Station. We as concerned citizens want road traffic to reduce drastically, which will automatically lead to lesser pollution and accidents too. We need to remember that primarily a nation or city grows with development if it has effective infrastructure to handle traffic and logistics. This station being made for humans cannot be shifted to far away from city centre. Moreover, CONCOR run Multimodal Logistics Park (ICD) is close to Khapri. Nearly 6000-8000 trailers move in that area every month. Such heavy vehicular traffic in that area renders Khapri unviable to develop as an IMS. Citizens using intercity train or bus will have to travel on an average 8-10 kms from downtown areas. This will cause significant pollution and traffic congestion in the city. So shifting to Khapri is no solution at all.
Another concerned citizen Shri Alok Patel shared us satellite photos of Ajni taken between 1965-67 from the Corona series of spy satellites of the United States that were operational in the 1960s. Images were declassified and are now available for public use. We are sharing those pictures which display that Ajni area wasn’t a jungle as is being highlighted by tagging it as Ajni Vann.
By this press release we want to show our total support in favour IMS Ajni and request Gadkari ji to please continue with this very important project for citizens of Nagpur. However we also demand that the trees transplanted and new saplings planted should be done with extreme caution so that we achieve with maximum possible survival rate. We already have excellent survival rate of saplings planted by Nagpur Metro at ‘Little Wood’ situated near Khamla Nagar off Amravati Road, if their team is delivering better results, why not handover this job to them. Furthermore the trees counted in these 45 acres are 4930 only, including small trees and not 40,000 as is being highlighted.
We have enough examples of our children shifting to different cities for want of job as they aren’t getting opportunities in our region. Unless we have strong infrastructure, we can’t attract industries and investments. City needs world class infrastructure and IMS Ajni is strong link to achieve such target. With due respect to the environmentalists, please do not create hurdles for development, lets concentrate on compensation of the loss of trees due to such development. Both development and environment needs to walk in support of each other.
Maha Vidarbha Janjagaran through Shri Nitin Ronghe and Vidarbha Defence Industries Association through Shri Dushyant Deshpande have also submitted their support in favour IMS at Ajni, Nagpur.
