For long our city’s only solution for dealing with traffic congestion has been the construction of grade separators aka flyovers. That they have merely served to move the points of congestion a little further ahead seems to have escaped the attention of all those who are involved in city planning. However, it cannot be denied that they are now an integral part of our cityscape. Not only have they created bylanes out of the arterial roads on which they have been constructed, they have also given rise to spaces underneath which, being devoid of any maintenance, are sorry spectacles.
Faced with this challenge, the Greater Chennai Corporation has been experimenting with various solutions, most of them with very little success. A few years ago, there was this much touted greening of the pillars under the flyovers by means of saplings in small plastic receptacles. These were supposed to be watered at specific intervals by automated supply. When the system worked it cannot be denied that the plants presented a very pleasing appearance, the lush greenery serving to mitigate the harsh Chennai heat. Madras Musings being rather a cynical newspaper, had predicted all along that the greening was too good to last and sure enough, it’s Cassandra-like predictions proved to be true. Scarcely had the commissioner, who had promoted the idea, been transferred that water supply to the receptacles was turned off, the plants drooped, some receptacles were stolen and finally what was left was all taken away.
Yet another quixotic attempt at improving the appearance of the space under flyovers has come under the head of what could be termed beautification. This involved the installation of public art, benches for people to rest on, fountains and tiled flooring. Who in their right senses would want to sit under a flyover? Naturally, the homeless and other vagrants. The Corporation has not been able to evict them and it has also failed to maintain the public art. Much of the money therefore has gone to waste.
One of the few instances where the space under the flyover has proved to be a commercial success is Kathipara. An entire food court has come up here and the space being reasonably wide it has been able to handle the footfalls and the demand for parking space that such a food court requires. What it has not been able to handle is the disposal of food waste which seems to litter the area once the shops close at the end of the day. There is a growing feeling that such commercial activities can be considered under other flyovers too. This, in our view, is not advisable because the space that exists in those roads is very limited unlike at Kathipara. One way of utilizing the spaces would be to let them out as parking bays for which a fee could be charged. This could also bring in some amount of revenue to the corporation. This idea is not new, and it has been in practice under some of the flyovers. It is not clear as to why it cannot be extended to others and why harebrained beautification schemes must be at all thought of.
Ultimately those in charge of planning the city’s infrastructure would do well to keep in mind that such ideas as grade separators have very limited functionality. The best option would be to go in for a long-term solution of rationalizing private vehicle utilization. This will necessitate encouraging people to use public transport, ensuring last mile connectivity and making sure that pathways are pedestrian friendly so that short distances can be covered on foot.