Last month, the L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad opened the much-awaited skywalk connecting the Secunderabad East metro station on Corridor Three to Rathifile bus station without any fanfare.
While it does help passengers to reach the Secunderabad railway station without the need to get down the metro station and cross the busy road-intersection below, it is a truncated version owing to lack of funds as well as coordination among different organisations.
The original plan was to enable passengers from the metro station to directly reach the foot-over-bridge on platform no. 1 after reaching Rathifile bus station. The skywalk now ends at the bus station with the rest of the work hanging in balance forcing passengers going towards the railway station to walk a considerable distance to reach the station entrance.
The L&TMRH and the government supervising agency – Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) – had earlier stated that it would be a 230-metre-long and 4.5-metre-wide skywalk to be built jointly by them. The overhead pre-fabricated steel pedestrian bridge is meant to connect the metro station, Rathifile bus station, railway reservation complex and platform no. 1 by originating from the side of Ramakrishna Hotel on the road median.
It is to go behind the Rathifile bus station, fork at a right angle into the railway land after the reservation complex, go behind the Ganesh temple and from then connect to the existing FoB on platform no. 1. About 180 metres of it is to be built by the L&TMRH/HMR and about 50 metres by the South Central Railway. The Railway authorities had also mentioned about having a booking office so that passengers need not get down onto platform no. 1 to buy tickets.
However, senior officials, seeking anonymity, said the plan to have escalators at the bus station is yet to be finalised between the SCR and metro rail authorities owing to space and cost constraints. The Railway authorities are ready to fund the skywalk on their ‘territory’, but there is no unanimity between the HMR and L&TMRH about how the construction cost of ₹4 crore is to be shared between them with both claiming to be facing a fund crunch.
