Bengaluru: Two weeks after 19-year-old Sanjay Giri was knocked down by a speeding taxi while crossing the Bellandur-Outer Ring Road and a week after a mass protest by citizens, elected representatives and government officials, accompanied by area residents, visited the spot on Saturday afternoon to choose a suitable site to build a skywalk at the accident-prone zone.
The good news is that the proposed ' Sanjay Skywalk' has been approved in principle. The meeting was attended by 130 Bellandur residents, MP P.C. Mohan, Mahadevpura MLA Aravind Limbavali, DCP (Traffic) Abhishel Goyal, Bellandur ward corporator Asha Suresh, BBMP Executive Engineer Jayashankar and BMRCL Chief Engineer Livingstone.
“As promised, I took officials for an inspection along with residents who have been demanding a skywalk in Bellandur on the dangerous Outer Ring Road. The group had a fruitful discussion with the Namma Metro, as the Phase-2 ORR line will pass along the same stretch in the future,” Mr Mohan said.
“BMRCL officials said they will examine the feasibility of the skywalk as a private company has already come forward to fund the proposed skywalk under a CSR initiative. It will be ready in three months," he said. The no-objection certificate is to be received from BMRCL officials, who completed their preliminary inspection and will release a feasibility report and skywalk design recommendation in a week.
A press statement by Bellandur residents read, “On his part, DCP Goyal promised to have immediate safe pedestrian crossing measures installed at the Ibbalur-Bellandur junction, so that pedestrians can safely cross 1 km away from the kill zone. After all, this 1.5 km kill zone radius has two bus stops, two schools, five preschools, two technology parks, more than 100 commercial establishments and restaurants, 8,000 residences, a daily footfall of 30,000 pedestrians and 1,00,000 vehicles passing through each day.”
A resident, Naresh Sadasivan, said at the meeting that he spent five working days every month chasing elected representatives over civic issues. “I shouldn’t be running from pillar to post for this. It would be great if, like today, all government representatives worked together to make the citizen’s life liveable on a regular basis and not expect citizens to connect the dots,” he said. The citizens are, however, still unhappy about the lack of response from BBMP on pedestrian-friendly footpaths, ramps and signage leading to this junction.
