Pavement on TM Nair Bridge needs immediate mending

TM Nair Bridge, which comes under Greater Chennai Corporation, begins and ends on the same note. The pavements need to be re-laid

For the pedestrian, an experience of the pavement on TM Nair Bridge (which comes under Greater Chennai Corporation’s watch), the one on the southern side, begins and ends on the same note. On both ends they need to sidestep the pavement. If one set foot on the pavement from its Egmore side, they would find the extreme end of it only marginally less chewed than a shoe in the jaws of a restless pup. If the trip on shank’s mare begins from the side linking to Poonamallee High Road, the pedestrian has to first take a few steps on the carriageway, as a signpost and a lamp post hog the pavement, which is considerably narrow at this point,

What lies between these ends will keep pedestrians walking on a pavement, but not on a level ground. The pavement had been opened up for what appears to be cable-laying work. The cut portion, now closed, is as tell-tale as a horizontal scar on a chest subjected to an open heart surgery.

In places, the concrete has created jutting edges that can trip pedestrians. The pavement clearly needs to be relaid.

In one place, plants have grown on the pavement and a tree on the slope has spread its branches into the pavement. To avoid running into this greenery, a pedestrian might step on to the carriageway.

The northern side

Little things can reveal much, and laxity in small matters can underline neglect of Brobingdagnian proportions.

The pedestrian pavement on the northern side of TM Nair bridge scores a decent score on walkability. Over the entire course of this walkway, pedestrians need not break their step and tip-toe on to the carriageway, something they would be forced to do, currently, at the corresponding northern-side pavement at the neighbouring Gandhi-Irwin bridge.