The highways department has invited expressions of interest from consultants for the project. The project will be implemented under the World Bank-funded Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project-III. The official said that with the number of fatal accidents involving pedestrians on the rise, the only way to ensure the safety of people crossing busy roads and road intersections is to construct either foot overbridges or subways.

“The highways department has taken a policy decision to construct new subways or foot overbridges only with escalators,” the official said.

A study conducted by the highways department revealed a large number of pedestrians during peak hour on arterial roads in Chennai. Between 1,000-15,000 pedestrians per hour crowd several busy junctions.

The corporation has already constructed foot overbridges on Haddows Road, Old Jail Road and Mahatma Gandhi Salai. Work is underway on the construction of an FoB with an elevator near the magistrate’s court in Saidapet.