A sky connect

The Skywalk connecting Thampanoor with the Secretariat, which might come up soon, will come as a boon to Thousands of daily commuters passing through Thiruvananthapuram Central Railway Station and the KSRTC Bus station

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state capital is all set to go for a complete makeover soon. Once the state  government begins implementation of the key projects proposed in connection with its second anniversary, the city will have a Skywalk connecting Thampanoor with the Secretariat.
Thousands of daily commuters passing through Thiruvananthapuram Central Railway Station and the KSRTC Bus station will be the beneficiaries of the direct connectivity between Thampanoor and the state administrative headquarters. It will help office-goers to tide over the morning rush through the busy MG Road.   

The Chief Secretary had earlier called a meeting in connection with these projects. Sources said the National Games Secretariat has been assigned with the task of coming up with a Detailed Project Report. The engineering wing of the games secretariat will look into the project.
The skywalk is one of the twelve major projects presented by Chief Secretary K M Abraham before Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the review meet on Monday. Though a final call is yet to be taken, the skywalk proposal has been widely welcomed.  

Former chairman of Thiruvananthapuram Development Authority (TRIDA) P K Venugopal termed it a timely initiative. “It’s a feasible initiative and is absolutely necessary for the capital. Since no land acquisition is involved, it can be implemented in a speedy manner,” Venugopal said.
The previous government had some similar initiatives planned in the second phase of the Capital Region Development Project as part of which a slew of schemes including 42 km road widening was carried out. “The empowered committee for capital region development had come up with a few proposals for light projects. Preliminary report for some of these project have also been prepared. However, we couldn’t go forward due to various reasons,” Venugopal said.

The skywalk will promote walking culture among city-dwellers, said Capital City Development Project convener and former additional chief secretary T Balakrishnan, who earlier proposed such a project in the city. The proposal was to set up a pedestrian walk connecting Central Railway Station to Secretariat, along with an extension to East Fort. “It will greatly help in reducing accidents since vehicular and pedestrian traffic will be separated. The pedestrians can have a safe and comfortable walk which will in turn help more people opting for a walk. Also it will induce a health culture. At that time, the proposal was kept on hold when the Light Metro project came up. It was decided a decision be taken after the alignment is finalised,” he told ‘Express.’