Puri inaugurates Skywalk, FOB

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 15

Amidst controversy over the launch, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri today inaugurated the much-talked skywalk and foot over bridge at the junction of Sikandra Road, Mathura Road, Tilak Marg and Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg at the ‘W’ point near Hans Bhavan at ITO.

Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal and Member of Parliament Meenakshi Lekhi, were also present on the occasion.

The ministry had, as part of the decongestion plan of Delhi roads, sanctioned an amount of Rs 54.84 crore under UDF to decongest the ‘W’ point and provide easy and safe passage to pedestrian by way of providing a Skywalk at this junction.

The ITO Crossing and ‘W’ point junction are the two busiest crossings as far as pedestrian traffic is concerned. There are over 25 major offices and other institutions located in this area. Approximately 30,000 pedestrian cross various roads around ITO crossing and the ‘W’ point.

A large network of public utilities has been constructed to connect all sides of the various roads. The foot over bridge (FOB) at Hans Bhawan has also been constructed to provide easy and safe movement to the pedestrians. The Skywalk with a length of 400 meters has a width of five meter and length of loop and ramp is 130m having width of 3m. The length of FOB at Hans Bhawan is 54m with a width of five meter.

This has been finally done after war of words between the Union government and the Delhi government after it was finalised on not inviting PWD Minister Satyendra Jain for the function.

Even today, Jain in a statement reiterated that it was after the efforts of the AAP government that the design of the Skywalk and FOB was approved by the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC). Bureaucratic queries were raised about the necessity of the project and a former Delhi PWD secretary, now posted outside Delhi, raised queries about the need for such a project. His objections were, however, overruled by the Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia headed Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC), which gave its approval for providing the Delhi government share of Rs 12 crore for the Skywalk project.

This amount was immediately sanctioned and released by the Delhi government for the construction of the SkyWalk, he said adding that the idea was first conceived by the Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi government in 2006-2006 for the Commonwealth Games but the design was rejected by the DUAC.