Kolkata, Mar 20: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation will build a number of foot over-bridges fitted with escalators in the city by the end of this year. The decision for giving the pedestrians, an escalator comfort was taken to encourage them use these footover bridges.
KMC will publish an expression of interest for construction of these bridges.
The project will be handled on public-private-partnership (PPP) basis, said Atin Ghosh, member, mayor-in-council overseeing the engineering department.
Officials have toured parts of the city and selected some spots for construction of these foot bridges. These include Garia, Gariahat, Ballygunge Phari, Park Circus (AJC Bose Road crossing) and Lindsay Street.
The crowded Maniktala and Kankurgachi are also two possible spots for the project, say sources.
Each foot bridge will cost around Rs 3-4 crore, the MMiC said on Tuesday. This apart, an underpass will be constructed at Syed Amir Ali Avenue in front of an under-construction mall.
The civic officials also studied the areas which are more accident-prone, before finalizing the spots. spots have been selected on the basis of their proximity to frequent road accidents.
"Primarily we have selected 8-10 spots where the new age foot bridges will be set up. Later, we will take up 10-15 more such spots in the city," Ghosh said.
Sources in the KMC engineering department said that at least half a dozen such foot bridges will be built by the end of this year. "By the end of 2014 we will build 15 foot bridges across the city," the MMiC said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, KMC is gearing up to dismantle a footbridge from Park Circus to Ballygunge Phariin front of Park Circus bridge number 4.
The civic body had sat on the proposal to shift the footbridge for a long time and has not started to take action.The civic body has asked Selvel advertising to shift the foot bridge from Park Circus to facilitate construction of the ongoing flyover.
The foot bridge at Park Circus was constructed by Selvel advertising agency five years ago following a series of road accidents in front of the Park Circus bridge no. 4.
After commissioning the bridge, the advertising agency sought permission for construction of such a bridge at Ballygunge phari.
