Now, skywalks with capsule lift for pedestrians

Now, skywalks with capsule lift for pedestrians
New Indian Express
BANGALORE: Bangalore would soon have world’s first skywalks with capsule lifts.

Following failure of pedestrian bridges with stairs, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has now come up with a proposal to introduce capsule lifts as escalators would be risky for children and the elderly. The concept is designed by Palike’s chief engineer (infrastructure) H Rajasimha and BBMP has invited expression of interest on design-build-own- operate-and-transfer (DeBOOT) basis.

“India has 7 crore vehicular population, every year 92,000 people die in road accidents. We need safe and usable foot over bridges to tackle the problem. Bangalore traffic is all the more risky as the city has world’s highest number of two-wheelers,” said Rajasimha.

BBMP received great response to expression of interest notice. Companies from South Africa, Bahrain and UAE have bid for 36 locations. A total of 68 companies have bid, he said.

“Skywalks with capsule lifts would attract children and the elderly and they would not be exposed to risk on the road,” said Rajasimha. Skywalk would have a clear height of 5.5-metres and two lifts each on either end. Lifts alone would cost about Rs 75 lakh. The investment and maintenance would be by the contractor who would get a 10-year advertisement right on the skywalk.