Another 'cross me if you can' subway

Another 'cross me if you can' subway


Y Maheswara Reddy First Published : 17 Jun 2010 07:39:17 AM ISTLast Updated : 17 Jun 2010 08:42:11 AM IST
BANGALORE: The urine-reeking, rain water-inundated subway near Hebbal police station, built at lakhs of rupees for pedestrians’ convenience, has become a civic mess instead.
“There are occasions where miscreants use this subway to create nuisance,” a police constable said on condition of anonymity.
One cannot walk through the subway without his hand on nose to save himself from the stench. Stagnant rain water adds to his woes. As the subway dispels pedestrians, they prefer to use the nearby underpass, meant for vehicles, to cross the busy road instead.
“These pedestrians, most of them women, are vulnerable to accidents. The underpass is meant for motorists and not pedestrians,” the police constable added.
H S Murali, Inspector of Police (Traffic), acknowledged that the subway was unusable in its present condition. He said that he had intimated the concerned department in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to clean the subway.
The Executive Engineer of Hebbal division of BBMP, Vijayakumar, blamed the Major Roads Division of the utility for not draining rain water from the subway.
“There is no facility to let out rain water from the subway. I will take measures to keep it clean,” he added.
However, Chief Engineer of the Major Roads Division, T N Chikkarayappa, denied that cleaning the subway was their responsibility.
“It is not fair to blame our department.” He said a sump was provided at the subway to store rain water.
“We handed over the subway to the department concerned four months ago. They have to use a pump set to drain out rain water from the sump,” he said.