The sites for construction of a foot overbridge at Jayadev Vihar in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, April 14: Nearly three years have passed since the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had proposed three foot overbridges to help the pedestrians cross the roads at Jaydev Vihar, Master Canteen Square and Ramadevi Women’s College, but so far not one has been built.

While the construction of the foot overbridge at Jaydev Vihar had started last year, the civic body had to stop the work because of the general election.

Similarly, the final design of the foot overbridge near Master Canteen Square is not ready. The civic body, which had assigned the job to NIT, Rourkela, expect the final design to be ready by this month.

However, the construction of the foot overbridge in front of Ramadevi Women’s College is yet to start.

Another area of concern for the civic body is the proposed Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS).

The officials fear that if the BRTS project takes off, chances are that the existing roads might be expanded further. “So far, there is no clear decision regarding the agency that would carry out the BRTS work. There should be a clear co-ordination between the civic body and the executing agency that would take up the BRTS work so that the proposed foot overbridges are not shifted,” said an official of the corporation.

Civic body had laid the foundation stone for three foot overbridges on local Self-GovErnment Day on August 30, 2011. But since then problems related to site identification have led to inordinate delay in the construction of foot overbridges.

These structures would be built under public private partnership (PPP). Ajanta Badri-Vishal Media Initiative, a consortium, has been entrusted with the job to construct these facilities.

“The vehicular traffic in the city is increasing day by day. This has necessitated the need for foot overbridges. But the civic body seems to be unwary about the safety of pedestrians,” said Manoranjan Behera, a resident of Saheed Nagar.

However, corporation officials said that construction would be expedited after the elections. “Once the election process is over, we would expedite the process,” said executive engineer, Division-I, R.N. Mallik.