Visakhapatnam: Safety of pedestrians has been taken for a ride in the smart city with no proper provisions being made to cross roads at busy junctions by constructing foot-over bridges (FOBs), subways or implementing zebra crossings. The denizens are seen struggling to get other side of the road and sometimes endangering their lives even spotting vehicles are speeding towards them.
With traffic volume increasing, medians are being raised on the busy roads for easy traffic flow. But, at the same time, the civic body or the other stakeholders are not bringing up any amenities that will help the pedestrians to cross the roads without any hassle. The municipal corporation had planned to construct FOBs and invited tenders in 2010, but that never translated into action.
In the absence of the FOB or subways, the pedestrians are found crossing the road at undesignated gaps created illegally to avoid long U-turn. Foot over bridge or subways are very necessary at busy squares like Maddilapalem, Jagada-mba centre, Daba Gardens, Dwarakanagar and railway station. Moreover, there are no FOBs on the BRT corridors in the city, which is very important considering that the motorists ride at a good speed on this special way thinking no one would get in.
Though zebra crossings have been marked at some points on the National Highway passing through the city and other artillery roads, there are no display boards to alert the motorists. Because of which motorists never slow down at zebra crossing. When asked about plans to construct FOBs or subways, GVMC chief engineer V. Chandraiah said, “They had plans for FOB earlier, but all have been shelved in view of the metro rail project. The metro way could face obstruction due to FOBs.”
“No provisions were made earlier for pedestrians and now it is being ignored again citing the metro rail project. The city can not be considered smart when such basic facilities are ignored to the public,” said N. Ramesh, a businessman. Moreover, the auto-rickshaw drivers are taking advantage of the medians.
“I could not point out the narrow gap of the median in front of the station, so the driver told me to get down at a place where I had to walk a long way to get on the other side of the road. When I asked him to do so as I had luggage with me, he asked for extra money,” said P. Jagadish, a corporate employee.
