Subways pedestrians avoid like the plague

Y Maheswara Reddy | NT

A visit to six pedestrian subways in the Central Business District is sufficient to know how negligent and careless the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities are when it comes to making subways pedestrian-friendly. There are around 20 pedestrian subways across the city, but most of them are unfit to use.

The BBMP authorities had spent crores of rupees for the construction of these subways. The purpose of subways is to facilitate pedestrians to reach the other side of a busy road without any hassle and also to ensure movement of vehicles on the road without a break.

However, the negligence of BBMP authorities, despite police bringing to their notice the condition of the subway at Hebbal, claimed the life of a 15-year-old girl. Now, the BBMP authorities are engaging people to drain stagnated rainwater at the subways, but nothing has been done to ensure pedestrians choose to use the subways.

“It is frightening to enter the subway near Basava Bhavan. It is not clean and unfit for pedestrians to use. I prefer to take the risk of crossing the road than entering this dirty and unhygienic subway to reach the other side of the road. The roof of the subway becomes leaky whenever it rains heavily, thus causing a lot of inconvenience for pedestrians who use it,’’ said Pushpa S, a pedestrian.

Many pedestrians blame the BBMP authorities for not maintaining the subways. They said the subways are either full of dust or stagnant dirty water. “I can’t use the handrail fixed to the wall of the subway. It is so dusty. I want the BBMP authorities to ensure cleanliness at all subways,’’ said Shivananda Swamy, a visitor to the multi-storied building.

Not all subways are placed at the right places. Some of them are underused or not used by pedestrians. For example, the subways near Basava Bhavan and those on the Raj Bhavan Road are not being used by many people as these are situated close to Basaveshwara Circle also known as Chaluka Circle. There are zebra crossings at the circle. “I do not know why the BBMP authorities wasted taxpayers’ money by constructing these two subways. Why should pedestrians take the risk of using the subways near this circle while it is safe and convenient to reach the other side of the road by walking on zebra crossings?’’ asks Ashok S, a pedestrian.

The irony is that none of these subways have lights. Most of the electrical fittings are either rusted or missing. Ironically, the two subways in front of Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) have no electricity. “I have informed the BBMP engineer about the missing lights and electrical equipment. The BBMP engineer told me that he would attend to the problem,’’ said a home guard.

The other problem with the subways is the lack of cleanliness and encroachment by street vendors. For example, most of the space at the subway that connects KBS to KSR Railway Station is occupied by vendors. One has to think twice before using the staircase as it is being used by sex workers and transgenders for soliciting customers. Upparpet Police Station had a special team to get rid of this menace. It was very active for some time and, as usual like any initiative or programme, it is now defunct.

However, many people use the subway near KR Market. Earlier, police used to advise pedestrians to use the subway and not risk their lives by crossing the busy road to reach the other side. “We have been creating awareness among the pedestrians on the importance of using the subway here, but people prefer to cross the road than using the subway due to reasons best known to them,’’ said a traffic police constable.