Bus routes in the city will soon get 48 km of additional footpaths, designed with granite kerb and slabs.
The new footpaths will be restricted to the eight zones of Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam, Alandur and Adyar. The Chennai Corporation is likely to finalise the tender for the Rs. 42.75-crore project on December 6 and the work on footpaths on 71 bus routes is expected to be completed in four months.
Most of the new granite footpaths will be two-metre wide. As many as 21 bus routes passing through Teynampet zone will get 15.66 km of footpaths at an estimated cost of Rs. 13.65 crore. The area of additional footpaths in the Teynampet zone will be 62,620 sq m. The major roads include Valluvarkottam High Road, Sterling Road, Sterling Avenue, Tank Bund Road, Mahalingapuram Main Road, Greams Road, Whites Road, Binny Road, Thiru Vi Ka Road, North Usman Road, Theagaraya Road and Luz Church Road.
Kodambakkam zone will get 9.85 km of such footpaths on roads including Dr. Nair Road, Tambiah Road and P.T. Rajan Salai. Royapuram zone will get 6.82 km of additional footpaths on stretches including Purasawalkam High Road, Ethiraj Salai, Pantheon Road and Gandhi Irwin Road.
Other major stretches covered under the project are Kathipara Road, Indira Nagar Third Avenue, Mahatma Gandhi Road, West Avenue Road, Besant Nagar Second Avenue, Kalki Krishnamoorthi Salai, Besant Nagar Seventh Avenue, Nanganallur Second Main Road, MMTC Colony Main Road, Perambur High Road, Choolai High Road, New Vaidyanathan Street, SIDCO Main Road and Dr. Ambedkar College Road.
According to Corporation officials, the proposed granite footpaths will have better finishing and will be different from the existing facilities on roads. All the blocks on the pedestrian facilities will be removed to facilitate streamlined movement of pedestrians. The work is being taken up under the special roads programme of Chennai Corporation in 2012-2013.
