The Hindu 20.08.2009
Foot overbridge work in Saidapet soon
Deepa H Ramakrishnan
| Corporation has issued work orders; the overbridge will have elevators on both sides |
— Photo: S.S.Kumar 
DIRE NEED: Both pedestrians and motorists will benefit from the proposed FOB.
CHENNAI: Work on construction of a foot overbridge on the busy Taluk Office Road in Saidapet will commence within a few days with the Chennai Corporation issuing the work orders to the contractor.
The facility will come up near the Saidapet Court, said a senior official of the civic body. The FOB would be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs.31 lakh. It would also have elevators on both sides. The work for installing elevators at an estimated cost of Rs.55 lakh is in the tendering stage. When the FOB was completed, work on the elevators would be taken up.
After the traffic police introduced one-way regulation on Taluk Office Road over two year ago, pedestrians demanded a foot overbridge. Then, the Corporation had announced that it would install an escalator there.
The proposed FOB would come as a blessing to pedestrians. “As there is no traffic signal at the spot, vehicles coming from the Saidapet bridge and Guindy tend to run at more speed in this area. Though a traffic constable is posted here during rush hour, many people find it difficult to cross the road at other times,” said T.Thirumal, an advocate at the Saidapet Court.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M. Shakeel Akhter said the traffic police had suggested that such facilities be installed in places on priority basis. “In many places such as near Shastri Bhavan and on Rajiv Gandhi Salai, the FOBs are not used. Pedestrians still prefer to walk across the road. On an experimental basis they are trying out an FOB with lifts in Nungambakkam. We will see the success rate of these FOBs [Nungambakkam and Saidapet] and suggest more in other places.”
