Chennai: To improve pedestrian safety and ease traffic flow, Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has planned to upgrade 15 major bus route roads across the city at an estimated cost of 45 crore. The project focuses on stretches that witnesses heavy vehicle movement and frequent congestion.Key locations identified for improvement included Ashok Pillar, Church Road, Alapakkam Main Road and Padi Kuppam Main Road. The initiative involves widening selected road stretches and installing concrete speed-breakers at pedestrian crossing points.“The project also introduced several safety features along these busy corridors. These included warning and information signboards, bollards to prevent vehicles from encroaching on pedestrian zones, and loudspeaker-based alert systems designed to warn motorists when pedestrians were crossing,” said B Shankaravelu, chief engineer, GCC. “The aim is to improve road discipline while ensuring pedestrians have safer crossing points on these high-density corridors,” he added.The planned upgrades were part of a broader effort by the civic body to improve road infrastructure and safety measures across the city. Urban planners have long emphasised the need to improve safety infrastructure on bus route roads, as they often experienced a mix of buses, two-wheelers, cars and pedestrian movement. “The civic body’s proposal aimed to integrate multiple safety components within a single project rather than implementing them in isolated stretches,” said K P Subramanian, a city-based urban planner.GCC is expected to finalise the detailed project plan and begin execution in phases during the coming financial year.
