HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s grandiose plan to construct over 50 modern foot overbridges (FoBs) in a public-private partnership at busy traffic locations in the city has been put in cold storage due to the paucity of funds.
FoBs have become essential for pedestrians to safely cross the roads where there is high-speed traffic.
Municipal administration and urban development minister KT Rama Rao had spoken a few months ago against the idea of allotting advertising space on the skywalk of FoBs and suggested that FoBs have very limited advertising space on the two columns of an FoB so that the aesthetic look of FoBs is not spoiled.
Moreover, he thought, citizens should not get the impression that FOBs are built with an eye on revenue and not out of concern for pedestrians.
Taking the cue, GHMC commissioner B Janardhan Reddy had asked bidders to adopt the approved model designs with the concepts of erecting the advertisement hoardings over two columns of FoB but the bidders said the cost of construction as per the new designs would be substantially higher than that of the model given to them in the bid document.
Later, the GHMC studied some alternative ideas such as cantilever advertisement. Under this, private agencies, instead of advertising on the FoB skywalk, will be allowed to put up cantilever advertisement boards on either side of the footpaths within one kilometre of the FoB. But the advertisement wing of GHMC, in a letter, told the engineering wing that a petition seeking a ban on cause cantilever advertisements was before Supreme Court.
Thus, with advertising on FoB skywalk ruled out, private agencies are no more interested in taking up FoBs’ construction in PPP mode as the expected revenue would not be worth the investment. Each FoB will cost `75 lakh to `90 lakh.