CHIEF MINISTER LAYS FOUNDATION STONE
(Top) Chief minister Mamata Banerjee with Swami Suhitananda, the general secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, at the programme in the Dakshineswar temple; (below) the road leading to the temple on which the Skywalk will come up. Pictures by Sanat Kr Sinha
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday laid the foundation stone of a 400m-long elevated walkway above the congested Rani Rashmoni Road that leads to Dakshineswar temple but civic officials fear the project could be held up by hawkers.
Rani Rashmoni Road is a narrow 350m-long road that leads to the main entrance of the temple compound, visited by 13 million people annually. Vehicles and pedestrians jostle for space on the stretch lined by hawkers and other encroachers on both sides.
On Tuesday, Mamata said at a programme in the temple compound that the walkway - named Skywalk - would be out of bounds for hawkers and would provide an easy access to the shrine.
The walkway has been planned at a height of five-and-a-half feet from the ground. The road below, the chief minister said, would be widened and would only cater to vehicles.
'The project will cost Rs 65.16 crore. Once the Skywalk comes up, reaching the temple from the Dakshineswar island would become convenient for pedestrians as well as those in cars. The project deadline is 18 months but we will try to finish it before that,' Mamata declared to loud cheers from the gathering.
' Eta ekta notun type-er jinis hochchhe. Eta khub sundar (This a new kind of thing coming up. It will be very beautiful),' she said.
Officials of the local Kamarhati Municipality, however, said it could take more than 18 months to remove the hawkers and get work started.
Both sidewalks of Rani Rashmoni Road are occupied by hawkers selling all kinds of ware - from puja ingredients on saal leaves to fried delicacies, sweets to teddy bears.
This forces pedestrians to walk down the narrow blacktop - only about 7m wide - bringing traffic to a crawl.
Civic officials fear there could be resistance from the hawkers when they would asked to move away.
Also there are beggars who line the approach to the temple, who are likely create a ruckus.
The authorities do have plans for rehabilitation of hawkers but only the ones with proper papers.
'There are about 160 hawkers by our estimate on Rani Rashmoni Road. Only 107 of them have a licence from the municipality. These licences, too, have changed hands in some cases. But we will relocate and later reinstate only those hawkers whose papers are in order,' said an official of the CMDA, which has been entrusted with skywalk project.
Hawkers with valid licences will initially be given space to set up shop elsewhere during the construction work and when the elevated stretch is ready, they would be given a shop space of 2m x 2m on it.
The space would be on the median divider between two of flanks 3m each for pedestrians headed in opposite directions.
There are plans to widen the road below as well, necessitating the removal of hawkers during the construction stage itself.
The plan is to construct a 7.5m corridor for cars and bikes. It would be flanked by two lanes of 2.5m each to be used by cycles and cycle rickshaws.
For people to be able to access the skywalk at different points along the stretch, there would be 12 escalators, four elevators and eight sets of staircases along the way, especially near the bus and auto stands apart from the terminal points at the Dakshinesawr railway station and the temple.
The state government recently proposed a realignment of the East-West Metro project, thus delaying it by months, because it did not want to displace hawkers on Brabourne Road. Last week, the chief minister had promised to hand over trade licences to hawkers in the city.
