The Hindu : Front Page : Foot bridges with escalators for Tiruchi

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Monday, May 05, 2008
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Foot bridges with escalators for Tiruchi

S. Ganesan

— Photo: M. Moorthy

Road to relief: A traffic policeman regulating pedestrians crossing West Boulevard Road near Main Guard Gate .

TIRUCHI: The Tiruchi Corporation has decided to build pedestrian foot bridges with escalators on some of the arterial roads, as part of the private-public partnership initiatives to beautify the city.

A consultant is to be appointed shortly to design and draw up the proposals.

The move has been planned on the lines of the initiative taken up by the Chennai Corporation. The move comes in the wake of complaints of difficulties faced by pedestrians in crossing some of the main roads in the city. The Corporation has previously abandoned a proposal on constructing a couple of foot over-bridges on the West Boulevard Road near the Main Guard Gate. Though the Tiruchi MP L. Ganesan had come forward to provide funds from his MP Local Area Development Fund for the foot over-bridge at Main Guard Gate, the move was dropped after the Archaeological Survey of India raised objections as they were planned too close to the Main Guard Gate, a protected monument.

The West Boulevard Road is one of the sites provisionally identified by the Corporation for putting up the pedestrian over-bridges now.

However, officials told The Hindu that the new ones were being planned well away from the Main Guard Gate. Among the other areas considered for putting up the similar facilities were Melapudur, Chinthamani Anna Statue, Vella Mandi Road and Srirangam.

However, the feasibility of putting up the structures in different parts of the city would be analysed by the consultant to be appointed. The brief of the consultant would be to assess the vehicular traffic volume in different parts of the city and the pedestrian traffic to identify the requirements for the foot over-bridges.

Since foot bridges are prone to be occupied by vendors and street-dwellers, the Corporation has planned to go in for escalators, a senior Corporation officer told.

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