The planners of the K R Puram sky bridge seems to have ignored the pedestrian convenience, concentrating just on controlling peak hour traffic. This has led to a dangerous ritual during peak hours for the residents of K R Puram and employees of the Tin factory. The four-way lane system, two emanating from the bridge and two at its sides, provides two primordial cave structures underneath the bridge’s superstructure for pedestrians. But without a zebra crossing, it is almost impossible for pedestrians to get to the other side.

Fazil holds his child’s hand and waits at one end of the road. He keeps a watch on the traffic and just as he is about to step on the road, he retracts to avoid a speeding vehicle. He repeats this exercise again and after a while successfully crosses the road. His woes do not end here as he has to repeat the entire drill on the other three lanes. Fazil fumes, “If only they thought of our convenience as well while they planned this structure, I would not have to risk my child’s life everyday.”

S V Raman, an elderly gentlemen, says, “I have been waiting here for the past half hour to get across but the flow of traffic never seems to reduce. We need an underground passage to get to the other side.”

Adding to that, Balan, a resident of K R Puram, says, “There is no organised facility for pedestrians and it is very dangerous for us to venture on to the road as there are loaded trucks that ply on this road towards the bridge.”
The problem of the pedestrians does not end here. Below the sky bridge is an intersection manned by a single traffic constable, Eranna who is forced to to do more than he can everyday. Not only does he have to ensure that pedestrians can cross at the intersection, he also has to monitor traffic, help people from the K R Puram station cross over to Narayanapuram as well as attend to the accidents that occur in the area. “Traffic below the bridge is greater than what is present above. This bridge must have been planned better making it easy for pedestrians too. The peak hours — between 8 am and 10:30 am and 5 pm and 8 pm — is when it gets most tedious for the police to manage,” he says.

Eranna had to cut short the discussion and ignore his other duties to attend to an accident. A heavily loaded truck rammed into V G Geeta’s car. An architect, she blames the poor planning on the part of the authorities. “The roads need to be widened and asphalted again. The encroachments need to be removed so as to avoid creating bottle necks,” she says adding that the narrow roads and traffic inflow from ITPL and the outer ring road concentrating at this intersection is the root cause of all the problems at K R Puram bridge.

The movement of both heavy and light motor vehicles, narrow roads and pedestrians attempting to cross at the intersection creates a high probability for accidents. Adding to the chaos is the K R Puram railway station.
The railway authorities, according to Eranna, have not parted with their land due to which the road below has not be extended completely. The passengers who alight from the trains at the station find it almost impossible to cross the road due to heavy traffic and lack of pedestrian walkways. Ironically, pedestrian pathways are found on the bridge superstructure but not on the roads below it where it is most needed.