Chennai: A missing roof on the foot overbridge (FOB) at Fort railway station, the only link to Muthuswamy road near the Tamil Nadu Govt Dental College and Hospital, causes hardship to thousands of commuters using the facility daily. Fort station is a key point on both Beach-Chengalpet and Beach-Velachery routes with more than 300 suburban train services operating on these routes. A govt employee and regular commuter, P Balaji, said, “It has been nearly six months since they removed the roof from the FOB. I think the contractor has fled because I have seen no official come and inspect this place since then.”An auto driver, M Abbas said, “From 9am till 11am, more than a thousand people commute via this bridge, and in the evening, it remains busy with office-goers retuning home and the public until night.”“Several govt employees, traders going to Burma Bazaar and Parry’s Corner, passengers heading to Broadway bus terminus, and those travelling to Central station get down here,” he added.Shyamala Selvadurai, an advocate at high court, said, “Isn’t a roof over the bridge a basic requirement? What amount of money, resources, or workers are needed to get it fixed? I have been commuting via this bridge for several months. Recently, there was a brief spell of rain and commuters had no shelter. As many elderly people use the FOB, it requires an elevator too.”A senior official from Southern Railway said, “Work inside the station premises have been completed. The balance works on the roadside and re-roofing works on the FOB bridge will be carried out soon. Partial traffic regulation and road closures need to be coordinated, and they will be done soon.”
