State highways proposal to construct pedestrian subways fails to take off

The State Highways department has been building at least half a dozen grade separators in and around the city to facilitate smooth movement of vehicles. But the proposals to construct new pedestrian subways with escalator facilities remain only on paper for the past seven years.

To provide safe road crossing for pedestrians and ensure uninterrupted flow of traffic on the important roads, the subways had been proposed at five spots that witness heavy pedestrian movement – near AG Church at Little Mount, MKN Road-GST Road junction at Guindy, Ekkaduthangal bus stop, near Kasi theatre at Jaffarkhanpet, and near Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) at Koyambedu.

All the five subway projects figure in the Chennai Metropolitan Development Plan, which utilises State budgetary allocation to build infrastructure in the metropolitan area as per the second master plan prepared by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) for 2010-2026. The State government had accorded administrative sanction to construct the subways at a cost of Rs 19 crore in 2013-2014.

The Highways department had announced that it had began preconstruction works on the five subways, adding that the works would be taken up for execution during 2015-16. However, four years on, the work is yet to take off.

A senior Highways department official said that building the subways was not feasible due to due to difficulties, including shifting of pipelines. The alignment of the proposed pedestrian facility is also at odds with that of the Metro rail alignment. “So, alternate proposals have been studied. 

It has been decided to provide foot overbridge with escalator at AG Church on Anna Salai and MKN Road-GST Road junction. The work on preparing detailed project reports for the two FOB proposals would be awarded to consultants,” the official said.

For the subways at Kasi Theatre and Ekkaduthangal, the official said feasibility studies suggested several hindrances due to traffic and proliferation of buildings in the areas where the subways were proposed. 

“For Kasi Theatre and Ekkaduthangal subways, we had floated tenders. But they did not find any takers despite being issued repeatedly,” the official said, adding that the department is exploring other options, including construction of foot overbridge at the two locations, too.

In the case of the pedestrian subway near CMBT, the Highways department official said that its design would be finalised only after completing the construction of the grade separator, for which work is under way. “A pedestrian subway has been included as part of the grade separator project,” the official said.

The department had proposed to construct a pedestrian subway at Tirumangalam along with the flyover. “However, the pedestrian subway work could not be taken up due to the Metro Rail alignment and land acquisition trouble,” the official said, adding that a pedestrian subway is under construction at the Retteri along with the construction of the second flyover at the junction on Jawaharlal Nehru Salai.

Former Professor of Urban Engineering at Anna University KP Subramanian said that the Highways department and the Chennai Corporation were giving undue priority to motorised vehicle rather than on ensuring the safety of pedestrians.

“Flyovers are cost-intensive when compared with the pedestrian facilities. It only shows that the department is more keen to spend money on the capital-intensive projects,” he said, adding that the construction of foot overbridges alone would not suffice when it comes to ensuring pedestrian safety.

“There is no point in constructing the FOB without preventing the pedestrians from crossing the road. The road median should be constructed preventing people from crossing the road so that they are forced to use the FOB,” he said, citing the example at Taramani where the FOB with lift and escalator facilities remain unutilised as the pedestrians prefer crossing the road.