Skywalks with escalators planned

Skywalks with escalators planned

Staff Reporter



New facility: The BBMP has already floated tenders in this regard.

Bangalore: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has floated tenders to construct skywalks with escalators in the city. The skywalks will be erected on a Design, Build, Own, Operate and Transfer basis for 20 years. As many as 53 locations across the city have been identified by the BBMP for constructing skywalks with escalators.

The proposal to have skywalks with escalators has been in cold storage for a long time. Earlier, the BBMP officials had even consulted experts to ascertain the feasibility of building such escalators in the city. The proposal was also part of the slew of infrastructure projects worth Rs. 22,000 crore announced by the State Government in its Vision Document for the city. To help pedestrians cross busy roads and junctions, as many as 200 skywalks with escalators were proposed to be constructed at a cost of Rs. 600 crore.
Advertisement rights

BBMP officials told The Hindu that the civic authority would grant skywalk developers advertisement rights. The space on either side of the skywalk could be rented for advertisers, which would be the prime source of income for skywalk developers. This way, the developers would be able to recover the expenditure incurred in a few years.

Officials said the BBMP would only charge licence fee and ground rent. “Developers who quote the highest ground rent will be given permission to construct the skywalk.”

On December 3, the BBMP had first called for tenders for 30 locations. By January 11, only 14 quotes were received, of which one was rejected. On the same day, tenders for 29 locations, including 17 notified earlier, were called for. On January 13, tenders for another 12 locations were floated, officials said.

They said some of the identified locations, which had high pedestrian movement and heavy traffic, included Hosur Road (near Christ College), Commercial Street, Devaraj Urs Road, Lashkar Road, Ambedkar Veedhi (near M.S. Building), Richmond Road, Shivananda Circle (near Desai Nursing Home), SMS Railway Junction, Subramanyanagar Police Station, Webb Junction, and Rajaram Mohan Roy Road.