Gurgaon Plans Several Foot Overbridges (FOBs) for Pedestrians

 Gurgaon's gift to pedestrians

GURGAON: The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has finished getting the whole city surveyed for the lack of basic pedestrian facilities, and has earmarked several areas where the need for foot-overbridges is most pressing. The areas which get most footfalls a day were prioritized and the roads which get high-speed traffic movement were short-listed.

For starters, IFFCO Chowk, Rajiv Chowk, Galeria Market, Cyber Green road, Sohna Chowk road and Mahavir Chowk bus station will get the foot overbridges (FOBs).

There were several criteria for selecting the areas. First, it was established that many people crossed the roads on these junctures. And these were all areas where pedestrian movement was high, and so was traffic movement, said an MCG official. Several private contractors were roped in for the job, and two will be given the job to construct the foot-overbridges, and once the work is done, to maintain them for the next 35 years, after which, the corporation will take those over.

Only this year, over 300 people have lost their lives in road accidents, and most fatalities have involved pedestrians.

Because people have no other choice, they cross roads straight through the speeding cars, and this has been a cause for many fatal accidents and serious injuries. So it was incumbent on the authorities to establish foot overbridges around the city, which I am sure will bring down the number of accidents also, said the official.

All the foot overoverbridges will be installed with escalators on both the sides of the road, and will take a few months to come up. The final date has not yet been established, but the installation in all these six points will take a few months to be finished, said another official.

He added that proper care will be taken to make these foot overbridges disable-friendly, and that ramps will be provided on both sides for wheelchairs.