BENGALURU: In a bid to ensure safer pedestrian movement, the local civic body will soon add 150 skywalks at the major junctions in the city.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to take up the construction of the skywalks in the next two years. It has already floated tenders for the construction of 20 skywalks within six months.
There are hopes that the construction would be done soon as BBMP has decided to spend on its own and maintain these skywalks, and not hand over the project under the Private Public Partnership (PPP) under Viability Gap Funding (VGF).
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Manoj Kumar Meena, Special Commissioner (Projects), BBMP, said, “We will take up the construction of more than 150 skywalks in the next two years to provide safety and security for pedestrians in major traffic-dense areas of the city. Though the BBMP had called for tender several times in previous years, it could not take place due to absence of takers. Later, we also tried to assist them by giving 30 per cent of total construction cost. But we found no takers for the project so we have decided to take up the construction on our own. Each skywalk may cost `2 crore and we will use the various funds sanctioned by the government for the purpose.”
Measures will be taken to make skywalks more public friendly, Meena said. “We are redesigning the skywalks to make it friendly for all types of people and CCTV and escalators will be installed to encourage more people to use it,” he added.
The BBMP had called for the construction of 50 skywalks in the city five times in 2017, but it did not see any takers under the PPP model. After failing to attract bidders for the work, the agency also announced VGF of 30 per cent for the construction locations where no takers showed interest.
Currently, BBMP has been taking up the construction of skywalks under PPP model where advertisement agencies are constructing them under Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) model. Under this model, advertising agencies hold the ownership of skywalks and generate revenue over the contract period of 30 years.