Date:26/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/26/stories/2008112655620600.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Flight of steps incomplete

K. Manikandan

— Photo: A. Muralitharan

NOT YET READY: The road overbridge at MIT Gate in Chromepet was completed a couple of years ago. But the pedestrian staircase is being delayed.

CHENNAI: Long after completion of the road overbridge (ROB) at MIT Gate in Chromepet, one of the key objectives behind creating the facility — to prevent pedestrians from walking across the railway tracks — is yet to be achieved.

The reason: the flight of steps and pathway meant for pedestrians on one side of the bridge remain incomplete.

The Rs.26.20-crore ROB to replace the railway level-crossing (LC No. 28) at the MIT Gate was completed in February 2006. It was the first such facility in the southern suburbs of Chennai and taken up as part of the Central and State government’s joint scheme to replace all railway level-crossings in the Chennai Beach-Tambaram section as part of the gauge conversion scheme of 1998-99. The objective was to permanently close down railway level-crossings after replacing them with bridges or subways to avoid trains getting detained near signals and also to prevent pedestrians from walking across the track.

To ensure that pedestrians’ access to areas on either side of the tracks was not affected, staircases were an integral part of the project. Likewise, a flight of steps also formed part of this ROB project. While the staircase was completed on the southern side, it remains incomplete on the northern side owing to issues concerning land acquisition.

Residents of Nehru Nagar, Chromepet, said the reason for the delay in completing the flight of steps on the northern side was the location of a temple, as some of its structure would come in the way of the steps.

The temple authorities told The Hindu they had agreed to “trim down” a couple of minor structures on the walls of the temple premises so that the pedestrian pathway parallel to the elevated carriageway could be extended and then the flight of steps leading to the surface could be built.

Pallavaram Municipal Chairman E. Karunanidhi said the matter was long pending and they had revived proposals on resuming work on the incomplete portion. There would be a positive development in about three months, he added. If the steps were completed, Southern Railway could even build a permanent concrete wall to prevent people from walking across the track, he added.

Though one flight of steps is operational, several thousands of pedestrians heading to Chromepet and Hasthinapuram prefer to walk across the track everyday, risking their lives. Last week, a 56-year-old man died on the spot when a speeding train hit him while he was crossing the track. The victim, Venkatesan, a resident of Kunrathur, was a conductor with the Metropolitan Transport Corporation.