Proposal lost in a fall

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The holes dug up for the construction of the foot overbridge in front of St Mary's Higher Secondary School, Pattom is putting the lives of students in risk. Though the work had started five months ago in September, the project has come to a halt owing to the delay in receiving NOC approval from the Public Works Department. 

The foundation stone for the foot overbridges at two of the busiest areas in the city — near Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Cotton Hill, and St Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Pattom — were laid together in March, 2018. Though the foot overbridge near Cotton Hill school has been completed, the work for the bridge near Pattom is still lagging.

"The pending construction work here has become a huge problem for school students. Recently a student fell in the hole dug as part of the construction work. The authorities are busy blaming each other, instead of taking up measures to restart the work at the earliest. We are planning to stage a protest with the participation of 12,000 school students if the delay of the work continues," said Fr John C C, principal, St Mary's HSS.

The skywalk project is being executed under public-private-partnership between the city corporation and Sun Infrastructure Private Ltd. The cost of the project and its maintenance will be borne by Sun Infrastructure, with the company being allowed to use the space for advertisement.

"The work for the skywalk began last September after the Corporation gave the green signal. However, after the completion of the civil works for the project, we were forced to make small changes in the design as one of the pillar will be erected on private property. Owing to this, the company had to redesign the project to ensure that the pillar stands on NH road property. The NH authorities have to provide the NOC approval for the new design. We are awaiting their sanction," said Naseeb S, director of Sun Infrastructure.  
The corporation has mooted another skywalk at East Fort to ease the traffic issues in the route. 
However, the project can only be started once the work at Pattom is completed. "The work of the foot overbridge can be completed in 20 days once the work commences. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will receive the NOC approval soon. The PWD engineers have already completed the inspection of the site," said Naseeb.

Meanwhile, the National Highway (NH) authorities claim that the construction work was being delayed because the authorities concerned did not seek prior NOC permission from the NH to start the work. 
"Getting an NOC is necessary to kickstart any construction on NH property. We have completed the inspection procedures and a report has been prepared based on it. The final report should be approved by the executive engineer and the chief engineer. The procedures won't take much time," said an officer with the NH wing.