A year on, no sight yet of skywalk at Kempapura junction

The much-awaited skywalk project at Kempapura junction is proceeding at a snail’s pace even after a year it was planned. The project was announced in March 2015 after a speeding tanker killed two persons on the busy Ballari Road at the junction.

Arpitha Janardhan (19), a student, who was crossing the road and Anand, a pillion rider, were killed on the spot and three others were injured seriously, after a speeding tanker ran in to a group of people who were crossing the road near Esteem Mall in February 2015. Arpitha was a student of Sindhi College.

Following the accident, the National Highways Authority of India had announced the construction of a skywalk at the junction. The project is yet to come to fruition even as one more student (Aravind Muralidhar) was killed in an accident at Kempapura junction on Thursday.

The pillars required for the skywalk project lie dumped near the Esteem Mall junction. According to the traders in the vicinity, the pillars have been remaining so for more than six months and there had been no signs of any progress on the project.

Pallavi Vinod, Vice-Principal of Sindhi College, said that the students of the college had held a massive protest following the death Arpita.

“The last update which we received from government is that it is trying compensate Mall and defence authorities for the land which they have to  part with for the project. Had it been the case of a minister's son or daughter, the government would have moved at fast pace,” she said.

Sources said that the officials of the NHAI, defence and the government were passing the buck. Agriculture Minister and Bytarayanapura legislator Krishnabyre Gowda, under whose constituency the area falls, blamed the defence authorities for the delay.

“The project would have been completed long ago had the defence authorities parted with their land. I have written to them seeking their co-operation in completing the project. But, there has been no response. The construction material required for the project is ready and all that we need is land,” the minister said.

He added that the NHAI had already paid compensation to the defence authorities.
The presence of six traffic policemen at the junction has not been of any help in stoping the accidents. "The traffic signal stops only for 30 seconds and on Friday the signal was not working. The skywalk is much needed given the high traffic density” said Kamal Khan, a trader who does business close to the junction.

College closed
Meanwhile, Presidency College, which lost its student Aravind Muralidhar to an accident at Kempapura junction, was closed on Friday.