Work on the much awaited foot-over-bridge (FOB) that will replace the existing manned railway level crossing (LC 127) near Vellore Cantonment railway station commenced on Tuesday.
Officials of the Southern Railway, which executes the work, said that the new bridge will help ease pedestrian woes and facilitate safe crossing of the manned level crossings, especially during night. “Provisions for elevators will be given. The new bridge will have LED lighting, steel railings and an open-sky roofing. The new bridge will be ready by June,” said a railway official.
Jointly funded by the Southern Railway and the Department of Highways, the new bridge will be built at a cost of ₹6 crore under the Railway Work Projects scheme that aims to replace the existing railway level crossings with subways or bridges in the country to ensure safety of road users and lessen total travel time of long distance train passengers.
The FOB was designed for two reasons — location of Nicholson canal along the track that might affect heavy concrete structures like subway and ROB due to loose soil and water seepage and the users of the level crossings are mostly pedestrians.
As per plan, the new bridge will be 50 metres long and six metres wide. The height of the bridge will be 6.5 metres from the track to prevent the new facility from hitting the existing electrical high tension (HT) line along the track. Broad tiled staircases and ramps will form part of the work. The entire work is being done within railway land thereby avoiding any delay in the project due to land acquisition.
At present, residents from Indira Nagar, Kasapa, Burma Colony, Avulliah Nagar, Vasanthapuram and Puliyanthoppu near Vellore fort, have been using the level crossing to reach Chennai - Bengaluru Highway (NH 44) and areas like Katpadi across Palar. As per study, on an average, over one lakh vehicles have been using the facility every week.
As an alternative route, railway officials said that pedestrians and motorists can use the new rail over bridge (ROB) at level crossing (LC 127), around 800 metres away from the FOB work site until the completion of the new bridge.
