Foot overbridges on Metro route to go

Pedestrians will now face difficulty crossing roads with the Metro rail authorities requesting the GHMC to remove foot overbridges as construction of piers has picked up pace

It is not only vehicular traffic that will go for a toss when the Metro rail construction gathers pace in the core city. Pedestrians, too, will find it difficult to cross busy roads, with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) all set to remove foot overbridges (FoBs) falling on Metro rail routes.

The Metro rail authorities have requested the Municipal Corporation to take the FoBs off as construction of the piers pick up pace.

Meanwhile, viaducts will be laid in the next couple of months before the monsoon sets in. Six functioning FoBs are on metro rail corridors like Rasoolpura, Begumpet, Khairatabad, Ameerpet, St. Ann’s School (Secunderabad) and Dilsukhnagar.

Tenders will soon be invited for removing them. Majority of FoBs came up eight years ago when the erstwhile MCH took up the construction of structures under the Build, Own and Transfer (BOT) mode under the Fund Your City scheme.

Private agencies had to bid for a time period till they would own them and then pass on the ownership to the civic body.

As many as 10 FoBs had come up during that period, including the structures on Necklace Road, Mehdipatnam, Shaikpet and the one near L.V. Prasad Eye Institute.

The FoB at Mehdipatnam was sawed off when the PVNR Expressway was being built, and the Mumbai-based firm that built it did not show much interest in shifting the structure to another area.

Incidentally, these turned out to be the only FoBs to become functional in the first phase. Later, the FoBs at Jubilee Hills, Masab Tank and Malaysian Township were made part of the revenue model adopted.

Little else came out of the revenue model though at one time there were plans to build 70-odd FoBs.

There are also agencies that want the GHMC to shift the FoBs being removed to other areas. “The city needs several FoBs on various roads. It is better to shift them for pedestrians’ sake,” says the head of an agency that built an FoB in the first lot.

Senior Municipal officials are awaiting a decision from the traffic and transportation wing to provide alternate sites.