With hardly a week to go for school reopening, the long-pending promise of a skywalk in front of St.Mary’s Higher Secondary School near Kesavadasapuram is far from being fulfilled. As on Wednesday, the work has reached only till the shifting of the electrical lines and the construction of a foundation slab.
For pedestrians who take this path regularly, the footpaths on either side have remained out of bounds for quite a few weeks due to the piling up of materials including steel pipes and concrete slabs.
The bus shelter on the opposite side, for those heading towards the Pattom- Thampanoor side, too is filled with material, forcing people to wait on the road. Once the school reopens next week, the already congested area will witness further chaos.
The skywalk project is being executed under a public-private partnership between the city Corporation and Sun Infrastructure Private Limited.
The construction activities which began here in September last year had come to a standstill twice, after the Public Works Department (PWD) objected to it saying that its permission was not sought. The department approved it on condition that it would be dismantled when developmental works happen in the future, including the monorail, which is proposed to pass through this route.
According to an official of the company, the work will be completed within one-and-a-half months.
“There was a delay in getting the clearance from the PWD. After that, the KSEB has experienced shortage of cables to shift the existing lines underground. These works have been completed. The slab work began last week and hopefully the entire work will be completed in the next one to one-and-a-half months,” said the official.
At East Fort
The work on the skywalk in East Fort is expected to be inaugurated in June. As per the new design at East Fort, there will be two skywalks, one from the Gandhi Park exit to the side of the bus stand towards Beemappally stand, and another from the bus stand to the opposite side. The proposed foot overbridges will have lifts on either side.
