Foot overbridge fails to serve purpose

The much-hyped foot over bridge at Tehsil Chowk, Dehradun does not seem to have turned popular with the pedestrians  a day after it  was inaugurated by the Chief Minister Harish Rawat.While many consider it a waste of time to use it others said it amounted to squandering away public fund by the State Government.

When this correspondent visited it and interacted with  the pedestrians  the reaction was  mostly negative.  Traffic police  insisting  on making the pedestrians to use it  instead of taking the roads seem to be falling  on deaf ears.“The foot over- bridge was not required. It would have been far better had they acted strictly to make  all to conform to zebra crossing norms,” said Mushaid Khan, a local resident.

The refrain runs  that  the  foot over- bridge meant to ease the pedestrians’ woes  would not  serve  the purpose.   “We faced a lot of difficulties when it was being constructed. There was hardly  any space for the  big  vehicles to pass,” said Manish, a daily commuter. The government’s grandiloquent plan to construct  eight more foot over- bridges in other parts of the city has failed to enthuse  the people.  

“It would be  sheer  wastage of money. They would not  serve their  desired purpose. Rather, they would compound things further. What is needed is that  police and  the departments  concerned should be made  to perform their  duties rightly,”   said Amar Pal.Kishan lal, an old resident, said it is a effete dream to new-make  Dehradun. “The green city that it once was is giving way to the concrete jungle with the government lending  its weight behind those who are disfiguring the  city with impunity,” he said.