Metro sinks skywalk
Metro sinks skywalk
iskcon devotees will have to risk walking across the busy road
Senthalir S. Bangalore
Devotees taking the skywalk to reach the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) will no longer have the safety it offered from the often dangerous traffic that passes below it.
Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has asked the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to dismantle the skywalk in a month's time for the Metro works to proceed.
The skywalk, built at a cost of Rs1.5 crore, provided smooth movement for lakhs of devotees to reach the temple for the past two years.
A BMRCL chief engineer said BMRCL had told the BBMP to dismantle the ISKCON skywalk by February.
Though aware of the Metro alignment, the BBMP had gone ahead with the building of the skywalk in 2006. The officials said they do not regret dismantling the skywalk as it was built on a design-build-operate transfer (DBOT) basis and so the civic agency had not spent money for the project.
"The BBMP didn't spend money for the construction of skywalk, which was built on public-private partnership module. We knew about the Metro project and this was built for temporary relief as insisted by Iskcon," said a senior BBMP official.
He said that the skywalk would not be demolished but dismantled and shifted to another place by next month. "If not, a subway would be constructed by Vantage Muley, an advertising agency, on a 25-year concession period. Hence, we would either shift the skywalk to another place or construct a sub-way for them to advertise," he added.
This means that more money would be spent even as Iskcon devotees and other pedestrians taking the skywalk would be put to difficulties.
Sreepathi Das, public relations of Iskcon, said that devotees will be put to much inconvenience if the skywalk is pulled down and an alternate arrangement was not provide close to the temple.
Dismantling the skywalk within two years of its setting up demonstrates the lack of coordination among agencies.wasted resources: The skywalk near the Iskcon temple in Rajajinagar was built without much planning
posted by The Bangalorean @ 1/08/2009 09:52:00 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Everything in Bangalore is done unplanned. The Skywalk in front of Sangam Theatre ,on the K.G.Road no one uses. The sky walk connecting Maharanis College is sparinghly used. The Sky walks r so high only people with might can climb them . They r not of use for elders and women . Why not think scientifically before wasting public money. The argument of BBMP that they have not spent any money and hence it does not matter is silly. Whats happening to the idea of skywalks with Escalators?
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