Bhubaneswar: The public works department will collaborate with the civic body for construction of two more foot overbridges on Bidyut Marg for safe crossing of pedestrians.

The two new overbridges will come up near Kalinga Stadium on Bidyut Marg. These will be constructed keeping in view heavy flow of crowd during the upcoming Men's Hockey World Cup here in November.

The authorities will construct the first bridge near gate No. 2 and 3 and another near gate No. 7 and 8 of Kalinga Stadium. "There will be a heavy rush of people during the world cup. Keeping that in mind, we have decided that the new foot overbridges will be constructed on this stretch," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

In absence of proper pedestrian crossing facility near the stadium, people had a tough time during the Asian Athletics Championship that took place last year.

"The foot overbridges will not only facilitate pedestrians crossing the road safely, but will also contribute to smooth flow of vehicular movement below," said the mayor.

Sources said that the works department would prepare an estimate and the architectural plans for the foot overbridges and the civic body would explore the option to adopt a similar approach they adopted while constructing the first foot overbridge near Pal Heights on Jaydev Vihar-Nadankanan Road.

The first foot overbridge of the city was constructed in public-private partnership where the private partner bore the entire cost of the bridge construction and incurred the expenditure by using the bridge for displaying various kinds of advertisements.

"We are going to hold a meeting with the civic officials to decide on the modalities for executing the foot overbridges. We hope to finalise things by the end of this month and go for construction. The work will be over by November," said a works department official.

Residents welcomed the move. "Bidyut Marg is one of the busiest roads. The foot overbridges will help commuters cross the road safely," said Nayapalli resident Pankaj Jha.