The Public Works Department (PWD) of the Delhi Government has decided to hold a “comprehensive survey” to identify the congested locations of the national Capital in order to construct foot-overbridges (FOBs). The initiative has been taken considering the woes of pedestrians as the department has received written requests and complaints from various parts of the city.
“The PWD is going to conduct a survey starting this week to identify and locate the areas where pedestrians are facing issues…we want to see the areas which pose danger for pedestrians while crossing the roads and are congested due to traffic,” a senior PWD official told The Pioneer.
He said the department wants to do it in a systematic way. “This initiative came up after we received demands and concerns from public representatives. By taking up the survey to plan a proper construction at these places we intend to identify the places where it is possible to construct the FOB. Even though people demand it at many places, technically some areas might not be suitable for construction works thus by holding the survey, the areas would be listed and constructions would be taken up quickly,” he added.
While the initiative is intended to give a breather to the public, Delhi has many FOB which lack maintenance and are surrounded by filth. In 2007, while many FOBs came in being with an idea to help elderly people and differently-abled but some of them have become sights of urination while the escalators do not work most of the time.
last year, PWD Minister Satender Jain also announced the Delhi Government’s skywalk and foot-over-bridge (FOB) project at ITO.
The official said typically the cost of one FOB goes from Rs3 crore to Rs4 crore. The funding for the new indentified FOBs is yet undecided. However, the official said the department would plan a quick facility which might avoid inclusion of escalators as it requires maintenance.
“Once facts seen, the funds would either come from budget fund or PPP mode where some party comes and builds the FOBs while later recovers money from the advertisements…Avoiding escalators would be a wise thing as the cost would go up. There would be a regular maintenance,” he said.
Some of the areas which would be including in this plan are the Burari by-pass, Delhi University Wazirpur area.