Rs 36-crore Kharghar skywalk reduced to a advertising site

The City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) constructed a skywalk at Kharghar for the benefit of the residents.

However, instead of serving that purpose, the Rs36-crore facility has now been reduced to a mere revenue earner for the town planning body. How? The town planning agency has given permission to erect banners along the skywalk by appointing an agency for the same.

According to the residents, the skywalk is of no use to them since it was constructed at a wrong place. They say that instead of constructing the skywalk along the roadside, Cidco should have built it across the highway, which could have been of more use to them.

Now, they have to walk along the road and then cross the highway from an intersection opposite Kharghar railway station.

“It could have been of more use had the Cidco changed its design. It would have been better had the intersection point taken from the Hiranandani Square and then turned it towards the service road besides the railway station. This could have been of use for the people living in sectors 11, 12 or 13, as now they have to cross the Hiranandani Square to reach the entry point of the skywalk and then walk towards the station. This makes no sense and so the facility is of use for only a few,” said a resident of sector 11.

However, Cidco officials contested this reason and stated that the skywalk has been constructed at the right spot and is being used by thousands of people everyday.

“Apart from the residents of the node, it was constructed to facilitate students from colleges situated along the highway. Considering its increasing usage, we decided to identify some places along the skywalk that can be allotted to one agency for putting up banners to generate revenue. We floated a tender in June and will get a revenue of Rs1.80 crore over a period of five years,” said a Cidco official, requesting anonymity.

When informed that many illegal banners are also being put up along the facility, the official said that he has written a letter to the unauthorised constructions department of the corporation asking it to take immediate action against the offenders.

Regarding the maintenance of the facility, he said that the Cidco has invited tenders for providing the security, cleaning and sweeping apart from maintaining the electrical appliances at skywalk and for which, it may earn Rs1.62 crore over a period of three years.

Fact file
The 1.7-km skywalk, which connects Kharghar station to the opposite side of the Mumbai-Pune highway, was completed in August 2010.

It has an open type escalator in the entrance foyer portion of Kharghar station with a ramp for alighting.

A cable suspension bridge like the one at Bandra-Worli sea link connects the railway station to the highway. While one arm of the skywalk extends from the suspension bridge to Bharati Vidyapeeth College campus, the other arm extends towards the Utsav Chowk.