Nagpur: A week after knife-wielding men waylaid and killed a catering vehicle driver on the Gorewada-Pitesur Road, commuters on the nearby newly widened Fetri-Mankapur Ring Road patch said the almost 5 km road lies in complete darkness as the streetlights have not been switched on. This is the patch of road on which lies the Gorewada International Zoo, and connects Fetri town with the city.Nitin Gopalani, MD, Ramesons Hotel in Fetri, said, “It has been months since the road was widened and streetlights installed. Yet till date they have not switched them on. This entire patch, which remains in perpetual darkness, has now become a major security threat. It becomes worse during heavy rains as you literally cannot see anything outside the path of your headlight beam.”This road is used by hundreds of commuters, especially from the hospitality industry, late at night, several of whom drew a direct line between the Gorewada road robbery and murder and their own daily risk on the road.Carlcon Morris, who has been working in Fetri for the last five years, said many of his colleagues and subordinates often leave early out of fear. Morris said, “We go back home from work by 2.30-3 am, and accidents occur quite frequently on this highway. Since it is mainly a forest area, travellers also have to face threats of encountering wild animals that come onto the highway. Criminal activity has obviously risen as we hear of people drinking on the side of the road, and this recent murder case has scared everyone.”David Wankhede, who travels the road at 2 am daily, said a group of men near the Gorewada toll are known to stop commuters on two-wheelers and snatch phones and cash, occasionally turning violent. Wankhede said, ” We haven’t got much police protection in these matters. Most of these people are drunk and our natural instinct is to avoid stopping at any cost.”Rajesh Pardhi, another commuter on that road, said the same group of men, often under the influence of alcohol, went unpunished so far, compounding the danger posed by infrastructure problems like no streetlights.Sofia Ansari, who also commutes on the road in the late evening, said the absence of functional lighting left women particularly vulnerable regardless of the time. Ansari said, “Many people loiter on the streets who threaten others verbally and physically under the influence of alcohol.”Commuters said police presence on the stretch was limited to festivals or after major incidents, with no regular patrolling despite the forest department-controlled road’s history of robberies and now a murder. They said neither the department nor the police acted on the darkness or the recurring harassment even after the Gorewada-Pitesur case drew attention to the area’s security gaps.(With inputs from Aishwarya Moroney)
