The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has stalled the skywalk project on M.G. Road in response to criticism from citizens. The civic body maintains that the decision to stop work was taken following directions from Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George.
“The minister had directed us to stop the project after some people raised objections. He has asked for the file and we have sent it to him. The status quo will continue till further directions,” BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad told The Hindu .
Several citizen groups had questioned the need for a skywalk at Mahatma Gandhi Circle arguing that traffic signals would serve the purpose. They had also pointed out that the skywalk would be an eyesore and block the view of Mahatma Gandhi's statue.
However, sources in the BBMP said that the skywalk project is only 'temporarily stalled' and there is a chance that it may be revived. Though the BBMP maintains that project has been stopped, on Saturday, two men were seen working at the site.
In December 2014, the civic body had proposed to build an L-shaped skywalk across Anil Kumble Circle. However, in 2017 the civic body decided to build the skywalk at Mahatma Gandhi Circle. The decision to change the location was taken once they realised that a section of the proposed site on St. Mark’s Road was governed by TenderSURE rules, which prohibit the digging of the road.
The project taken up by the BBMP is under design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) model. According to officials, the contractor is spending ₹4 crore to ₹5 crore to build the skywalk which will have two escalators, a lift and three staircases.
The BBMP is expecting its share of advertisement revenue from the contractor to be in the range of ₹20 lakh per year.
‘First complete work on pavements’
Pedestrians using Queen's Road want the civic body to complete the ongoing work of upgrading the pavement at the earliest. It’s difficult to use Queen's Road from M.G. Circle to Cubbon Park metro station in the absence of a pavement, they said.
“In the evening, I catch a bus to reach Corporation Circle from the bus station located close to Chinnaswamy Stadium. There is no place to stand near the bus stop. People waiting for a bus have to stand on the road. The BBMP must provide a footpath by completing the project as early as possible.”
Another pedestrian Raghunandan said, “The BBMP should first think of providing a footpath on roads instead of building skywalks.”
