Secunderabad railway station sees a footfall of over 1.7 lakh passengers everyday and if you take into account people coming to the Rathifile bus stop, the railway reservation office or the Ganesh Temple nearby, it could easily cross the two lakh mark.
Several options
For years, civic administrators, railway authorities, traffic police, RTC officials and others have been mulling several options to de-congest the area with rampant footpath encroachments and what not.
With roadwidening ruled out, building a skywalk has been in the air for several years and the project is finally materialising.
It is thanks to the Hyderabad Metro Rail project! Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) Limited in association with the L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) and the South Central Railway (SCR) are going to build a 230-metre-long, 4.5-metre-wide skywalk.
This overhead pre-fabricated steel pedestrian bridge will be connecting the existing Secunderabad East metro station on Corridor Three (Nagole to Hitec City but till Ameerpet now), Rathifile bus station, railway reservation complex and the platform number one of Secunderabad railway station. It is to be built from the Ramakrishna Hotel end on the road median, will 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 platform number one existing footover bridge (see illustration).
Interesting part is, 180 metres of it will be built by L&TMRH and about 50 metres by SCR.
“We are considering giving staircases/escalators to the bus station and reservation complex while the railways is planning to do the same on its side,” says HMR Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy.
Says Amit Agarwal, senior SCR official: “We are going to build a part of the skywalk landing on our territory and planning to have a small booking office so that passengers need not get down to the ground to purchase tickets. We may consider linking Secunderabad West metro station too when the Corridor Two — Jubilee Bus Station to Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station is commissioned.”
Scaled-down version
Same goes for metro commuters as they can walk across to the railway station from the metro station without getting down, cross the road to walk across or take an auto if there is some luggage to the railway station. It will be a scaled-down version of an earlier plan to have a 450-metre-long skywalk.
The new skywalk is likely to cost up to ₹4 crore and is under fabrication in Pune. It could take up to four months for erecting the structure after it is transported here, according to Mr. Reddy.
