Skywalks: Is Palike groping in the dark?

Skywalks: Is Palike groping in the dark?
Tuesday June 19 2007 10:20 IST

BANGALORE: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has proposed unique pedestrian bridges in the city with capsule lifts called Skywalks.

Palike would be the first in the country if it executes them successfully. But its uniqueness itself seems to be the Palike’s problem. The Palike engineers do not have experience in the area and its consultant, Urban First, has not done such work.

As expected developers, advertisement agencies and lift manufacturers responded to Palike’s tender notice. It appears that these agencies have interest only in the potential lucre and not sustainability of the civic infrastructure.

Many bidders feel the lifts are not necessary. All they want is a gantry-like structure across a busy road to put up hoardings, which can also take some pedestrian traffic. Even Palike officials privately admit that skywalks are unlikely to succeed. With that attitude, these bridges would end up supporting only hoardings.

What is more amazing is that Palike unceremoniously booted out the man who had designed the skywalks and who has the copyright on the design. Former, chief engineer (infrastructure) H Rajasimha mooted the idea, designed the concept and floated the tenders.

But when Palike officials smelt huge revenue on the way in the form of widespread appreciation of the concept, Rajasimha was sent out - for no reason at all. For records they say that he opted out. It is another matter that Indian Railways, Mumbai Mahanagar Palike and Surat City Corporation are going ahead with his designs. In fact, insiders say that Palike had suppressed the proposal on skywalks till Rajsimha left.

On the other hand, Palike could not find a replacement, rather it decided to rely on its engineers, famous for fathering potholes on city roads and never ending de-silting of drains.

All this has made the entire process fertile for corruption. The bidders have no experience and Palike has no expertise to identify the right ones.

In fact, there are no standards by which a bidder would be allotted the work. It is going to be a typical bureaucratic decision and the city-based contractors are already smiling. For they know the roads to the heart of Palike officials.

It would be wise to scrap the proposal and start all over again after ensuring technical skills at Palike.