For over a fortnight, the foot overbridge near the Anna Nagar West bus depot on the Jawaharlal Nehru Main Road is lying unused, because the escalators attached to it are out of order. As a result, pedestrians are back to taking a detour of at least four kilometres to reach School Road from Sixth Avenue and vice versa.
The new facility, which was opened in July this year, connects School Road with Sixth Avenue located on either side of the 100-feet J.N. Main Road. “With the FOB being non-functional, pedestrians are forced to take a longer route to cover a short distance of hardly a few hundred metres. The escalators should be repaired soon,” said V. Rajagopal, president, Anna Nagar West (Phase – II) Residents Welfare Association.
Others risk their lives by crossing the busy and congested Main Road.
On contacting the Corporation, officials said that over-crowding on the escalators led to the equipment getting jammed. “We are working to put the facility back in working order,” said a Corporation official.
The foot overbridge has escalators on both the sides. Ramps have also been built for the disabled. Every day, on an average, at least 20,000 pedestrians cross the junction, and the FOB with escalators is the safest passage for them. The facility was constructed after traffic situation got out of hand. The traffic crisis was created by the conversion of a stretch of J.N Road between Padi flyover and Thirumangalam Junction into a one-way, in November, 2011, to facilitate the construction of a flyover at the Thirumangalam Junction. As a result, residents of School Road were forced to travel through the congested 18th and 13th Main Road to reach Sixth Avenue. To reach School Road from Sixth Avenue, residents had to go to Second Avenue and then take a right turn at the Thirumangalam Junction to reach the School Road – a distance of at least four kilometres.
