53 year old subway under Maintenance

- Tharini Magesh

One side of the subway which was constructed in 1966 that is located between Reserve Bank of India and Port Trust is under maintenance work from the 14^th of this month.

This subway is the path that is used by many people who have to reach Marina Beach, Mylapore, Adyar and other areas from parry. Even the important officials who have to move from high court to any other place would use this subway. The subway was constructed in 1956 after the construction of Sub-Urban Rail routes.

Now one side of the bridge is under construction. The side where the beach road takes commuters from Parry’s to Rajaji road is blocked for maintenance. So, the buses and commuters have to use the North Fort Road to reach Secretariat, Marina Beach and other places along the Rajaji Road.

The tracks that run above the RBI subway has to be replaced due to Safety Concerns. And so, the Southern Railways has asked the police to block one side of the road. The Chennai Corporation has taken this time to relay the road under the subway entirely. The replacement work might happen for more than a month and the commuters would have to use North Fort Road till then. Around one lakh rupees is to be spent on relaying the roads on this subway now.

“This subway is important because it separates traffic from those who want to reach Beach and Anna Salai but because of this everybody has to use the same road which causes a lot of traffic” says Mani, An auto-rickshaw driver.

“In the morning the traffic becomes worse near High Court bus depot as many commuters are using this road.” Says a bike commuter.

Historical Background of the subway:

• The Name of this subway is K.Kamaraj Subway but it was forgotten by many and the then Chief Minister M. Bhakthavatsalam inaugurated it.
• This subway was inaugurated on April 29^th, 1966, making this subway 53 years old now. The subway was built with a cost of Rs.60 Lakhs at that time.
• At first an overhead bridge was proposed to ease the traffic as there would have been a need to block the road 100 times a day because of level crossing for the trains to reach Beach Station, But, then the project was changed into a subway.
• For some time, the subway was with Highway department then after 30 years, it was given to Chennai Corporation.
• The modern art that is present in the median of the subway was painted just a year ago.