The State Highways Department is expected to close the Guindy pedestrian subway on Anna Salai soon for renovation. As part of the work, walls abutting the staircases will be be replaced with toughened glass.
“Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras will be fitted,” one of the officials of the State Highways Department said.
Though pedestrians welcome the move, they have requested the Chennai Traffic Police (CTP) to earmark a zebra-crossing on the stretch. At present, there are pedestrian-crossing signals at the intersection of Anna Salai and Sardar Patel Road, Guindy.
From the intersection to Vembuli Subedar Street, Alandur, pedestrians cannot cross the stretch from one side of the road to the other as there is a median and barricades have been put up.
Earlier, a crossing was facilitated at the intersection of Anna Salai, Muthu Kumarasamy Naicker (MKN) Road and Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road. However, due to work pertaining to the construction of Chennai Metro Rail pillars, the crossing was barricaded. Yet, a few pedestrians would climb the median to cross the stretch, resulting in accidents.
Following this, the Chennai Traffic Police identified five crossing points from the intersection of Anna Salai, MKN Road and GST Road and facilitated a passageway. But today, the passageways are also barricaded by iron and steel gates.
“Creating pedestrian-crossings at the passageways is not feasible as it may disrupt the free flow of vehicular traffic,” a CTP personnel said.
“Pedestrians cannot walk for three to four kilometres just to cross from one side of the road to the other. At the subway, during rush hour, pedestrians and commuters jostle for space on the foot overbridge (FOB). A stampede-like situation prevails on the FOB,” B. Sai, a resident of Pallavaram, said.
A CTP official, said, “As a temporary measure, a crossing will be created at the intersection of Anna Salai, MKN Road and GST Road, Guindy.”
