Residents fume over Bellandur skywalk snail's pace work

Sanctioned nine months ago, a skywalk on the busy Outer Ring Road near Belllandur in Bengaluru East is yet to be open for the public.

The resident welfare associations (RWAs) have slammed the inordinate delay in executing the project and exerted pressure on the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to expedite work.

The skywalk between Akme Harmony Apartments and Cloudnine Hospital is built based on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) model.

Last year in December, the RWAs under the banner of ‘Bellandur Jothege’ conceived and participated in city’s first community-sourced pedestrianisation programme called ‘Bellandur walks’. Developing better footpaths, adding skywalks and pelican signals were some of the goals of this initiative.

They staged a massive protest against the BBMP in December demanding this particular skywalk in Bellandur. The RWAs claimed that the presence of flyovers in the locality had bestowed a luxury of rash driving, which was making it impossible for the pedestrians to cross the road.

The BBMP called for tenders on January 17 after the mayor sanctioned the project in December, last year. But the construction work kick-started only in March.

The residents urged the BBMP to expedite the construction work pointing out the rise in the number of accident cases in the recent days.

“Other than the Sanjaygiri skywalk opposite to Akme Harmony apartments, no skywalks have been built in this highly populous suburb which has an average footfall of 45,000 as many corporate offices and factories are situated here,” said Kishori
Mudaliar, a spokesperson of Bellandur Jothege and Bellandur Walks.

“The pedestrian toll in Bellandur alone is five in eight months. The BBMP should pay a heed at least now,” he added.

Asha Suresh, Bellandur corporator told DH: “This year’s Assembly election had put a brake on the work. From the day poll code came into effect, the work was stopped for about 20 days. Hence, the delay.” She also mentioned heavy traffic as another reason for the delay.

She said: “As the traffic is heavy during the daytime, most of the work was carried out during the night time.”

“The required construction materials are at the site now. We are going to erect the staircase in the next 10 days. We will assure the completion of entire skywalk in 30 days from today.”