Residents of many western and northern parts of the city continue to risk their lives crossing railway tracks as projects envisaged to replace level crossings with road overbridges or subways remain on paper.
People of several residential localities at Villivakkam and Kolathur are losing hope that the road overbridge planned at the Level Crossing-1 (LC1) gate between Villivakkam and Perambur Loco railway stations would ever come up. The Level Crossing -2 (LC2) has been replaced with a subway a few years ago. Residents continue to wait for at least half hour for the other railway gate to open to travel from Villivakkam to parts of Kolathur and Peravallur.
Public hearing
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The Chennai Corporation had earlier planned to construct a road overbridge to ease traffic congestion in the fast-growing residential area. Even a public hearing was held by the civic body in 2014 wherein residents welcomed the idea. However, they complain that the project remained a non-starter.
Similarly, several residents risk their lives daily by crossing the level crossing at the Ambattur railway station. The level crossing connects areas such as Venkatapuram, leading to CTH Road and Bhanu Nagar and Pudur. T. Gunaseelan, a resident of Varadarajapuram, said residents otherwise have to take a detour of four km via Ambattur-Red Hills Road to CTH Road.
“The Corporation had passed a resolution a year ago to construct a subway. But, we are still waiting for it to take shape,” he said. The railway station at Annanur too has similar problems.
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As the foot overbridge does not connect to platforms two and three, many residents use the level crossing and the tracks to board trains. B.R. Prasad, a resident of Vijayalakshmipuram, said while several people had started taking the detour, some two-wheelers continued to take the risk of crossing the tracks and closed railway gate to reach the other parts of Ambattur.
Schoolchildren too take the risk as they otherwise have to walk a few kilometres.
However, Chennai Corporation authorities note that the road overbridge at the Villivakkam LC1 gate near the ICF is to be taken up jointly with Southern Railway soon. A senior official of the Chennai Corporation said a work estimate had been prepared.
Cost estimate to shift utilities of the Chennai Metrowater and the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation was being awaited.
Land acquisition
The project, planned to be executed at a cost of Rs. 20 crore, is getting delayed mainly because of problems in acquiring land from the ICF that has quoted around Rs.19 crore as the price. However, the official said the proposal, including land acquisition and work estimates, would be readied within two months so that work could be started by the end of the year.