The old pedestrian-cum-vehicular subway near the Madambakkam Road level-crossing at Nandivaram-Guduvancheri, which remained inaccessible to the public for decades, has been reopened.
The subway, which was constructed during the 1980s, became inaccessible following the encroachment of the access path and subsequent conversion of the subway into a conduit for laying public utility cables and galvanized pipes by authorities.
The importance of this decades-old subway came under focus after the Southern Railway closed the level-crossing permanently in December last year, to pave way for the construction of a road overbridge at this place.
A group of residents from Madambakkam and other hamlets located on the western side of Nandivaram-Guduvancheri submitted a petition to the district administration on December 31, 2013, seeking the reopening of the subway for the benefit of pedestrians, particularly school children and two-wheeler riders.
Subsequently, the local revenue and civic body officials swung into action and removed silt and wild growth that had covered the entire subway. They also removed the cables and pipelines that passed through the subway and retrieved the access path to the public facility.
Thanking officials for the swift response, D. Raji, former president of Madambakkam village panchayat, urged them to ensure the facility continued to remain accessible, particularly to the around 10,000 school children hailing from newly developed residential colonies who commute between their homes and the institutions located on the other side of the railway track.
