Palike’s bids on skywalks faulty

Palike’s bids on skywalks faulty
Tuesday July 3 2007 15:01 IST

BANGALORE: The ambitious project of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to build Skywalks in 41 locations in the city seems to have run into rough weather even before the contractors have been identified.

Many advertisers have expressed fears that contradictions in requisition of proposal (RFP) document and the Palike issuing 1000 fresh hoarding licenses in the past few weeks would upset the project.

A bidder told this website’s newspaper that even the revenue model is self-defeating. ‘‘The cost of erection of a Skywalk with lifts would be Rs 1.5 crore. We had expected an average income of Rs 6-8 lakh per month from hoardings but as Palike has allowed 1000 more hoarding by road side, the market for hoarding has come down.

Now the income would be Rs 4-6 lakh and after expenses the net would be somewhere Rs 1-2 lakh, which is way below the interest on investment,’’ he said.

Palike superintending engineer-in-charge of Skywalk project, P S Ramesh told this website’s newspaper that the civic body had not standardised the design. He said that grant of new hoarding licenses was not linked to Skywalks.

Palike also seems to be having difficulties in standardising the design. The RFP document says the lift capacity should be to carry 24 passengers. This would consume 10 feet width on footpath and the city has no sidewalks with this width, he said.

Even if such a lift is provided it would be difficult to maintain them. However, Ramesh said that the bidders were free to alter the design to suit the ground conditions. He admitted the civic body had not standardised the designs.

‘‘H Rajasimha who had mooted the concept had studied such projects in Europe and other countries and this is the first of its kind for Palike,’’ he said.

Further, Palike has stipulated a penalty of Rs 50,000 per day in case of breakdown of service. Bidders contend that the rate is too high to be enforced, given the lack of enforcement machinery at civic body.

‘‘There has to be some deterrence for shoddy maintenance and we will enforce it,’’ Ramesh said.