CHENNAI: Sixty-five-year-old Murali Krishnan uses the escalator to access the pedestrian overbridge at Chromepet to cross the GST Road, but soon he might have to use the stairs and strain his legs. Why?
Because the State Highways department, which maintains the overbridge, has not paid electricity bills for the escalator.
It is learnt that the Highways department owes over Rs 3 lakh to the TNEB. This has forced the TNEB to contemplate severing power connection. The Chromepet overbridge is one of the busiest pedestrian overbridges in the suburbs.
“We don’t want to inconvenience the common people, but the Highways department keeps defaulting in payments,” said a TNEB official, claiming multiple notices had been sent in this regard.
EB officials claim that usually four months of default payments are allowed for government departments, but the Highways department has defaulted for almost eight months.
When contacted, the city roads division of the Highways department admitted to the non-payment of dues and said steps were being taken to pay the amount and ensure that the escalators remain operational.