Chennai: The concept of foot overbridge (FOB) aimed at helping pedestrians and decongest city roads, continues to be a failure in Chennai. There are more than 30 FOBs located in the capital city but pedestrians use very few of them.
A visit by Deccan Chronicle to these structures reveals their pathetic state and vulnerability to anti-social activities at late night. People opt to cross roads amidst zooming vehicles to avoid stairs and FOBs at Kottivakkam, Saidapet, OMR, Peters Road, Nungambakkam are examples of neglect by both administrators and the public.
Strollers also blame poor illumination for avoiding FOBs. “Using the bridge to cross the road after 8 pm is a nightmare as it is equipped with low intensity lights and the over-sized advertisement hoardings placed on either sides of the FOB restrict any further light from entering inside. It is so scary that we prefer jumping over the median than use the bridge,” said S. Krishnakumar.
Indira Nagar foot overbridge also lacks maintenance and is crying for attention, he added. In Saidapet, the foot overbridge is situated right after the signal, where the vehicles pick high speed due to the one way traffic system.
“There is a zebra crossing and when the signal turns red, the pedestrians prefer to cross the road thereby avoiding the FOB. As the foot overbridge is abandoned for a long time it is now a happening place for anti-socials,” Pallavi Natarajan, a college student, said.
Similar is the plight of bridges near Udhayam theatre, Ashok Nagar and Shastri Bhavan in Nungambakkam. Resident said the roads are so narrow that it does not need a foot overbridge.
Road accidents also keep happening along these congested roads. Though Chromepet is one of the very few bridges, which is properly maintained equipped with escalators, it has its own set of problems. Locals complain that fruit and vegetable vendors encroach half of the foot overbridge leaving no place for people to walk on it.
When contacted, state highway officials said removing advertisement hoarding is not feasible as it is a state policy decision. But, illumination will be attended to at the earliest.
To a query on the delay in construction of foot overbridges with escalators, an official at Chennai Metro Development Project (CMDP) said a few proposals are pending as the design is yet to be finalised. For now, only Tambaram FOB is in the pipeline for improvement.
