Six pedestrian overbridges on OMR to be removed for Metro Rail work

Residents are apprehensive that the move will aggravate the chaos already prevailing on the busy Rajiv Gandhi Salai (Old Mahabalipuram Road) as the pedestrian overbridges are used by hundreds of schoolchildren and their parents

March 22, 2023 08:56 pm | Updated 08:56 pm IST - CHENNAI

The Tamil Nadu Road Development Company hopes to restore the pedestrian overbridges on Rajiv Gandhi Salai after the Chennai Metro Rail work is completed.

The Tamil Nadu Road Development Company hopes to restore the pedestrian overbridges on Rajiv Gandhi Salai after the Chennai Metro Rail work is completed. | Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

 

Six pedestrian overbridges on Rajiv Gandhi Salai will soon be dismantled to make way for construction of an elevated corridor of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd.

Sources in Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC), which manages the IT corridor, said the pedestrian facilities till Siruseri will be removed and restored after the work was completed.

“We are not sure how pedestrian facilities are being designed by the CMRL. If it is integrated with station points or if separate bridges and subways will come up remains to be seen,” said an official.

The skywalk near the Kasturba Nagar MRTS Station will be removed to make way for the flyover that is to be constructed from Sardar Patel Road by the State Highways department.  

C. Janakiraman, vice-principal of a school off OMR, said that already traffic had gone haywire at the Kannagi Nagar signal after the kerb stones segregating the service lanes were removed. “Hundreds of schoolchildren and their parents use the skywalk to cross the road to reach the schools. The Metro Rail tagline printed on the steel partitions says inconvenience today, for a better tomorrow. However, if proper precautions are not taken, it would endanger the lives of children,” he said. 

Anirudh, a resident of PTC Quarters, who uses the pedestrian overbridge near the Amma Unavagam regularly, said it would inconvenience people like him. “I utilise it to reach the bus stop on the other side. If it is dismantled, it remains to be seen how commuters can cross the bus stop. Already, OMR does not have openings in the median for pedestrians,” he pointed out.

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