CHENNAI: Construction of the pedestrian skywalk linking Kalaignar Centenary Bus Terminus (KCBT) at Kilambakkam with a proposed suburban railway halt has come under scrutiny after the Centre for Urbanisation, Buildings and Environment (CUBE), a centre of excellence housed at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, flagged concerns over design fragmentation, unauthorised execution and deviations from approved construction methodology.
Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) sources confirmed the observations and said corrective works would be carried out under CUBE’s supervision. Sources, however, said the skywalk is safe and that the facility and the newly added halt station are likely to be open to public after the Assembly election.
In a letter to CMDA, the government-backed technical body raised structural and procedural red flags in the execution of the 275-metre skywalk, originally designed by CUBE as a single structural system comprising 55 grids. The project was stalled after private landowners challenged the acquisition of nearly one acre of land along GST Road. A stay order from the Madras High Court halted construction, forcing authorities to revise the alignment to reduce private land acquisition by almost half.
Following the redesign, CMDA engaged another structural consultant through a tender process to rework key portions of the bridge, particularly the spans between 20 metres and 100 metres, including those crossing GST Road and the national highway. CUBE said its drawings were eventually used only for a limited section within the bus terminus, between Grids 21 and 25, and that design responsibility for the remaining portions was formally transferred (to the new consultant).
From that point, CUBE said it had no role in the revised structural scheme or construction methodology. In its letter, the centre warned that the first long-span truss over the national highway showed visible sagging – an issue that can arise in steel truss bridges if erection-stage forces are not properly analysed or monitored.
The centre also flagged concerns over a staircase structure for which it said no “Good for construction” drawings were ever issued, owing to unresolved discrepancies between architectural drawings and site levels. Despite this, reinforcement and slab works proceeded, leading to a deck plate failure around September 2025 – an incident that CUBE said was not reported to it. Subsequent addition of crossbeams, it noted, suggested structural inadequacy in the original configuration.
CUBE further pointed to deviations from approved drawings, including shifted beam bearings and altered weld connections, and a departure from the approved erection method. While the bridge was designed for ground-level fabrication followed by lifting, in-situ erection was adopted, potentially introducing unaccounted stresses. Following site visits, CUBE recommended that a single empowered authority reassess the skywalk as an integrated structural system.