CHENNAI: The City Corporation is renovating the footpath on one side of the Thiru-Vi-Ka bridge, across the Adyar river, at a cost of Rs 88 lakh. While the move is a welcome one, pedestrians along the stretch have been struggling to walk across the bridge for the past few weeks. “The broken pavements are completely unusable. It has been lying like this for at least two weeks now and we see no progress,” said Santhi N, a resident of the small settlement below the bridge, who walks the stretch at least twice every day. 

Walking along the stretch becomes especially difficult from 5 pm to 10 pm, said pedestrians.  “We walk on the bicycle track, instead, which may have been relatively safer if only bicyclists use the path. But, as we know it, motorists speed through the bicycle path too,” said Logu M, a pedestrian. 

Pedestrians who walk from RA Puram towards Adyar, find it easier to cross over to the other side of the bridge which has a usable sidewalk, instead.  “But, there are people walking from the opposite direction too and in most cases, some of us have to get down from the sidewalk to let them pass,” said Basheer A, who uses the stretch to get to work. 

That is also dangerous since people suddenly getting off the sidewalk onto the road takes motorists by surprise,” he added. When contacted, a Corporation official said that they are relaying the footpath only because it was damaged.

“The relaying work is funded by the Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust (CRRT) and is implemented by the Corporation,” he said. Another Corporation official said that the work has been progressing fast and will be completed within a few days.