52 FOBs, eight skywalks to come up in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: To facilitate pedestrians to cross the roads, especially at busy junctions without any hassle, the municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department has accorded permission for construction of 52 foot over bridge (FOB) and eight skywalks in Greater Hyderabad limits.
While eight skywalks, which will connect various locations around a junction, will be taken up at places like Dilsukhnagar, Mehdipatnam, Uppal, Ayodhya junction at Lakdikapul and RTC crossroads, the 52 FOBs will be constructed all over the city.
"The FOBs and skywalks will be taken up by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Administrative sanction has been accorded for Rs 207 crore on Wednesday," MA&UD principal secretary Arvind Kumar told TOI.
Pvt sector experience to be considered: GO
Till now, GHMC had faced problems in finalizing contracts for construction of FOBs as they ran into trouble on the issue of ‘experience’ clause. To overcome it, the state government in its Tuesday’s order (GO) said private sector experience will be taken into consideration while finalizing the tenders in case of reputed agencies.
The civic agencies, especially GHMC and HMDA, have been making attempts to construct FOBs for pedestrian safety for the past few years. The state government has asked the GHMC to take this up in a big way in view of a large number of accident deaths while crossing busy junctions.
The municipal administration department, along with other departments such as traffic, RTC and revenue, initially identified 140 locations for construction of foot over bridges and skywalks through an agency M/s IIDC in 2014. According to the MA&UD principal secretary, designs for the bridges were also finalised by the agency.
To begin with GHMC had proposed 20 FOBs, but some of them had no takers. Later, 30 more were proposed under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. Of the 30 firms that took part in the pre-bid meeting, only two bidders responded and they were given work at Muffakham Jha College on Road No 2 of Banjara Hills and near Shilparamam at Madhapur.
Making efforts, GHMC has proposed 55 FOBs with elevators and without elevators at places like National Police Academy, and awarded contract for 16 locations. Meanwhile, state government gave names of 44 locations to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority for construction of FOBs couple of years ago. However, the urban authority could build the FOBs only at five places and expressed its inability to take up the remaining due to various reasons. Subsequently, the balance 39 were transferred to the GHMC recently.
“Now, with relaxation of rules for eligibility, many agencies may come forward for construction,” GHMC chief engineer (projects) R Sridhar said.