Residents of Ganapathypuram and Irumbuliyur in East Tambaram took part in a signature campaign recently, urging the Southern Railway, highways department and Tambaram municipality to create a pedestrian facility across the railway track.
People cutting across all ages took part in the campaign. “The Rs. 80-crore road overbridge connecting Velachery Main Road and Grand Southern Trunk Road, inaugurated in 2011, replaced a railway level-crossing,” said Arun Kumar Bhattacharjee, an Irumbuliyur resident.
As the bridge did not have a flight of steps, it became inaccessible to pedestrians. Also, the vehicular subway adjacent to the bridge was not suitable for use, said residents.
As a result, every day, thousands of people, a majority of them school and college students, crossed the track near the closed level-crossing, at great risk to life and limb.
The authorities should take steps to provide a foot overbridge or subway so pedestrians don’t have to cross the railway track to reach GST Road on West Tambaram side and Velachery Main Road in the east.
