Don’t cross roads, use subway: Traffic police make commuters play it safe

The move would not only ensure safety of the pedestrians, but also ease the movement of vehicles on the arterial EVR Periyar road. According to official estimate, about 70,000 pedestrians cross the junction in front of Central station during peak hours every day.

“With the facilities available for the pedestrians to cross the road safely, we are only urging them to make use of the pedestrian subway connecting Central and Government General Hospital and Metrorail subway connecting the Moore Market Complex-Central station with Park Station to cross EVR Periyar road. No one was allowed to cross the junction outside the Central station on Tuesday,” said a traffic police at the junction. At present, pedestrians wait for the traffic signal to turn red to cross the road. Regulating vehicular and pedestrian traffic on the junction have been a challenge for the police.

Unlike the pedestrian subway belonging to the state highway department, the facilities constructed by CMRL would have escalators to make mobility comfortable, wider and safe passage for pedestrians. The Metro subways would be 8.9 m wide and could accommodate a large number of people at a time. The existing highway subway is only three-metre wide.

Moreover, Chennai Metro officials has opened entrance near central station parking facility for the commuters of the local EMU trains from MMC to reach the metro facility or Park Station. “Though the works are still under way near the Central station parking facility, we have opened it for the public use. It will provide easy access to Central Metro station from both Central railway station as well as MMC,” a CMRL official said.