Cross at your own risk

“The scary part is that no one would notice if someone attacks you as on one side of the lane are thick bushes and high compound walls and on the other side you have the busy BRT stretch. The stretch makes women feel very vulnerable,especially after dusk,” an employee of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur College of Nursing said.

The state of the subway is even worse — it reeks of urine and filth. When Newsline visited the subway,maintained by PWD and approved in 2004,there was no sign of a guard.

A resident of a government colony nearby said he had seen boys indulging in obscene acts when girls passed their way.

“My friend has asked her daughter to wait for him or her brother to accompany her through subway and never to take it alone,” he said.

Walking on road safer

Subways all over world were built with one purpose in mind — to ensure safe pedestrian movement and smooth flow of traffic.

In Delhi,however,pedestrians shy away from these facilities as most of them are poorly maintained,badly lit and unsafe.

The second subway that Newsline visited — in front of Lok Nayak Hospital — was no different. Dark and filthy,it resembled a dungeon rather than a safe passageway.

Once maintained by the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi,the subway is now locked. A tea stall vendor,who has been doing business there for nearly eight years,said the subway was closed in 2010 after the contractor left the place.

“Anti-social elements made the walkway their home. People preferred to brave the speeding vehicles than take the unsafe underground passageway to reach the hospital. Had an agency maintained it,installed lights and stationed a guard,this subway would have made life easier for many,” the tea vendor said.

Ravi Dass,engineer-in-chief,South Municipal Corporation,said the subway,which was with the MCD,had been transferred to PWD about a year ago.

“It was brought to our notice that anti-social elements were lurking in the subway and people avoided using it. Also,Delhi does not really have a culture of using subways,” Dass said.

But many pedestrians said they shied away from subways only because they were unsafe.

Rashmi who had come to visit Red Fort said she preferred taking her chances with the speeding traffic than use the subway near the monument.

“We use subways only when we are with friends or family members. I walked down the subway and saw people lying around and was hesitant to go any further. The guard was not even there,” she said.

The ice-cream vendor at the mouth of the subway said the walkway was open through the night as it had no shutters or grills.

“People avoid using it at night if they are not in a group of two or three. The subway is a den for drug addicts at night,” he said. The guard was missing when Newsline visited the subway.

Wrongly placed

While some of the subways are completely defunct,Newsline found that those which are in a good condition too were seldom used.

For instance the one located some distance from the Tilak Nagar Metro station was relatively clean but wore a deserted look. The reason: “It is so far from the Metro station that nobody wants to walk this far to cross the road,” an auto driver parked in front of subway said.

In Dwarka,residents complain about how a subway,which was necessary to cross the busy stretch in front of Dwarka Sector 21 Metro station,is now lying defunct. The subway has been closed for years now,forcing commuters to criss-cross their way through heavy traffic.

One of the entrances to the subway was locked and the passageway is laden with filth,with small shrubs lining the pathway. The stench is unbearable. Residents said the walkway was shut some four to five years ago.

“I have not seen it open for so many years now. Come evening,and one comes across people sitting and consuming liquor in groups. Even cars don’t stop near this place,” Hari Om,a cab driver,said.

Who is responsible?

All subways on 60-foot and above roads have been transferred to PWD,claimed the municipal corporations.

PWD spokesperson Ravi Mathur said the agency has directed to close subways at 11 pm. The agency also plans to hold a meeting with Delhi Police to make them more secure. “Earlier,the subways were dimly lit. We ensured proper lights in subways,but that did not solve the problem. Opening of shops in subways was one way to solve the issue of deserted subways,but the auction did not go well. We will work on these issues. The guards need to be told to stay on their seats as well,” Mathur said.

Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deepak Mishra said some of the subways are closed by the land owning agencies during the night. “Our men conduct regular checks and walk through the subway during night patrolling. Prompt action is taken whenever they find any drug addict or mischievous elements in the subways,” Mishra said.