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| People cross the busy road at Master Canteen Square in Bhubaneswar where one of the foot overbridges is expected to come up . Picture by Ashwinee Pati |
Bhubaneswar, June 13: The construction of the much-awaited foot overbridges in the capital city is likely to begin by the end of this month with the tender for the work being awarded to a local private organisation.
The three proposed foot overbridges will come up at Jayadev Vihar Square, Master Canteen Square and in front of Ramadevi Women’s College.
Though the foundation for the bridges was laid on August 30 last year, it had been put off since then because of a delay in the tendering process.
Sources in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation said: “The tender has been awarded to one Ajanta Advertisers, which will start the construction most likely by June end.”
The foot overbridges are expected to bring an end to the pedestrians’ problems.
“We had been hearing about the bridges for a long time. But so far, we have not noticed any progress in the project. The corporation must take quick steps to ensure safety of walkers, as there has always been a risk of being run down by the speeding vehicles,” said Radhika Sharma, a student of Ramadevi Women’s College.
Though nine bidders were present at the pre-bid conference on December 9 last year to take up the project, the corporation found only one bidder interested.
The Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation will assist the corporation in executing the project. The foot overbridges will be built with an internal width of at least three metres connecting all sides of the road. Their vertical height from road level to the bottom of the skywalk would be six metres.
There is also a plan to run the facilities with solar panels. Around 400sqm on the bridges will be reserved for displaying advertisements.The bridges at Master Canteen Square and Jayadev Vihar Square are expected to have the elevator facilities.
The carrying capacity of the each elevator would be 13 persons at a time. The one near Ramadevi Women’s College will have a ramp. All the three foot overbridges will have two staircases and drinking water facilities, footpaths, barricades and dustbins.
Last month, Cuttack got its first foot overbridge, built by one Selvel Private Limited Company in public private partnership (PPP) mode with the Cuttack Municipal Corporation for Rs 1.6 crore. But, the delay in building the bridges in the capital city has frustrated the pedestrians.
“The vehicular movement has doubled in the past few years. The corporation needs to ensure that the construction gets over at the earliest,” said S.K. Nijjamudin, a councillor.
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