East Fort to be an easy walk.

The long wait for foot overbridges at the accident-prone East Fort may soon be over.

After bringing about a change in the location proposed in the initial design, the city Corporation has got a clearance from the Heritage department. The Kerala Road Fund Board (KFRB) is, however, yet to approve it.

Meanwhile, the work on the foot overbridge in front of the St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Pattom is set to begin on August 7.

According to Corporation officials, the initial design proposed for East Fort had just one foot overbridge from Gandhi Park exit to Babas Studio.

But, the Heritage department objected to this design and refused to provide clearance for the same. Following this, Sun Infrastructure Private Limited, which is executing the project on a public-private partnership with the Corporation, reworked the design.

As per the new design, there will be two foot overbridges, one from the Gandhi Park exit to the side of the bus stand towards Beemappally stand, and another from the bus stand to the opposite side.

The Heritage department has given no objection to the design, while a nod from KFRB is awaited. The proposed foot overbridges will have lifts on either side.

The East Fort junction has been a danger area or quite some time, with close to 20 pedestrians getting killed here in accidents in recent years.

With the construction of a new bus bay and relocation of some of the bus stops and auto rickshaw stands, the accidents here have been brought under control.

The height of the central median was increased and wire meshes installed to prevent people from crossing from all locations, except the junctions with zebra crossing. But, a foot overbridge has been sorely lacking in this area, despite all these measures. The pedestrians still feel it unsafe to wade through all the traffic.

A subway is also planned at East Fort under the Smart City project.

The entire cost of the project and the maintenance cost is being borne by Sun Infrastructure as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, with the company being allowed to use the space for advertisement.

A foot overbridge in front of the Cotton Hill Girls’ Higher Secondary School, also under the same project, was inaugurated early in August.

THE HINDU