Hyderabad gets 5 new Foot-over Bridges to ease life of pedestrians

HYDERABAD:  The construction of five Foot-over Bridges (FoBs) has been completed and they are ready for inauguration by Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Minister KT Rama Rao. As and when they are opened for pedestrians, the FoBs will ensure that people can cross roads without coming in contact with speeding vehicles and thus avoiding road accidents. 

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) took up the construction of 22 FoBs at major junctions in the city at the requests of Hyderabad and Cyberabad police commissionerates, who had identified these spots as accident-prone zones. 

The five completed FoBs are situated near Hyderabad Central in Punjagutta, St. Ann’s High School in Secunderabad, Neredmet bus stop,  Swapna Theatre in Rajendra Nagar and near NSSK High School in Ferozguda. For these five FoBs, works on the walkways, staircase erection, roof sheeting, mild steel railing, crash barrier and flooring were completed, apart from the works to install lifts and escalators. Nearly `16 crore was spent to develop the FoBs.

GHMC Engineer-in-Chief Mohd Ziauddin tells Express that the GHMC took up the project to help pedestrians cross roads properly. “The FoBs on the routes with heavy traffic would help the pedestrians circumvent the streets completely while also assisting the commuters this way, especially in busy areas with markets and malls,” he adds.

FoBs have become essential for the safe passage of pedestrians to cross the roads where there is high-speed motorised traffic. The FoBs will minimise conflict between pedestrians and motorists on the busy roads and would save lives and minimise accident rates. The State government opted out of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement to build these skywalks as it was against its exploitation for advertisements. The State government reportedly asked various departments to construct these FoBs out of their own pockets as advertisement banners made the skywalks uglier.

Police identify accident-prone zones
The five completed Foot over Bridges (FoBs) were part of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) initiative to construct 22 FoBs at major junctions in the city. The civic body took up the project at the request of the authorities in the Hyderabad and Cyberabad police commissionerate, who had identified these spots as accident-prone zones