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Bangalore's new Skywalk locations

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InfrastructurePedestrian Infrastructure

BBMP has come out with an EOI document for construction of 56 Skywalks with escalators in 14 packages, here it is (link to pdf)

Some of the locations that stand out in terms of utility and usefulness are,

  1. Arya Bhavan Sweets to Kanthi Sweet to Himalaya Theatre, crossing KG Road
  2. BTS(sic) Main Bus Stand to Amar Lodge Building in Majestic Area.
  3. BTS(sic) Main Bus Station to Railway Station Premises
  4. In front of Satelite Bus Stand on Mysore Road.
     

Some locations with questionable utility and usefulness to general public,

  1. In front of Shopper’s stop (Mantri Elegance) on BG Road 1 no
  2. On Hosur Road "T" Junction with Tavarekere Main Road (Opp. Said Sadan &Prestige Acropolis) (High Rise Apartments Condominium)
  3. Near Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital, College and Nursing On Miller Road.
  4. Queen’s Road near Congress Office.
 
This project will be on a BOT basis with 10 years to recover costs through advertisements.
No technical details available, no specifications to be access friendly for the differently abled.
 

 

Comments

balu036's picture

Old Madras Road needs badly

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Old Madras Road needs badly a couple of them
idontspam's picture

Graded slope on skywalk

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Dont remember who I had this conversation with on putting up graded slopes on skywalks in lieu of stairs. I tried to pay attention this time around in New Delhi. I saw it in Motibagh near the gurdwara. On one side (of the same half) they have an escalator on the other side they have graded slope and normal stairs as well. They have the same combination across the road. There is another one of these skywalks on the same road towards dhaula kuan flyover. I saw almost everyone using the slope including cyclists (pushing the cycle not riding it). There were more new skywalks coming up on the road towards Moolchand sans escalator but with slope as standard fare.
narayan82's picture

can we include the pavement?

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From the Operator's side, he will gain more in terms of advertising only if people use his side walk. Can the operator also maintain 100 meters of footpath on either side of the sky walk. Can he keep encroachers off, clean/maintain and have barriers on the road side of the footpath? Can he also develop a Median on the road so people can't take a short cut? Otherwise these escalators will turn into Billboards!
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
narayan82's picture

replied!

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I think I replied to it briefly then too! Indigo (Airline) uses simlar stairs in Delhi Airport. Truth is if you take away the stairs and add slopes the gradient needs to be decreased and hence the lenght increases. So in Indigo's case it was a twin slope with a "U" Turn. If you know what I Mean... But unfortunately on a road seeing a longer path going up would tempt users to instead just cut across the road! Of course I htink the only way we can answer ur question is by prototyping. My reactions are acutally only castles in the aiR :)
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
idontspam's picture

Skywalk slopes

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No prototypes needed, theere are fully functional ones in Delhi. You need to see one of these. They have I think 4 landings/hairpin bends before it reaches the pavement. Very functional and doable. Like I said they are building more of these in Delhi, they are coming up all over the place.
narayan82's picture

ok, but enforcement is still required

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such ideas a syou say should definately work. But it needs to be supported by some medians and footpaths. So if the only way across the road is by the footpath, and not cutting across the road then it will be useul. Just a skywalk and median/railings will not be very useful. Again, how has Delhi handled this?
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
idontspam's picture

enforcement for skywalks

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Where skywalks have come up the roads are 100+ feet atleast. People dont dare cross those roads in that fast moving traffic without losing life and limb. Its like trying to cross JC road/residency road at its peak flow. So you need to pick your roads, fast moving arterial corridors with constant traffic, not in your neighbourhood residential area local street.
Bengloorappa's picture

Skywalks locations

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The published locations need a bit of analysis; a step in the "right" direction towards addressing pedestrian issues (may not necessarily be the right step).

Agreed that the BBMP doesn't pay money out of its pockets, but the locations could have been better placed - Barring a few such as Majestic area and around it, these Skywalks do not offer any solution to the harried average daily commuter crossing the same dangerous junction every day.

Lets start with the positives,

  • Educational institutions have been covered to a certain extent - St. Josephs, St. Charles, St. Anthonys, Nirmala Rani, Little Flowers Pub. school, New Horizon Pub. school, MCC, Ramaiah, Bhagwan Mahaveer College etc.
  • Representation is also made for important landmarks in Bangalore such as Ravindra Kalakshetra, Kanteerava Stadium, Mallya Hospital, CET cell, Lalbagh

To the no-so-positives,

  • Many high-pedestrian traffic junctions have been totally ignored, I agree that not every junction can be included, but some questionable locations such as Congress office on Queen's road have been. 
  • Some locations seem to have been identified without proper study (the EOI document states that the contractor will do the study before construction) for ex: The proposed skywalk at the junction of Sankey road and Malleswaram 18th cross road - this will probably be used by morning joggers and visitors to the park around Sankey. I am not saying this is not required, but given the sheer number of pedestrians crossing at Malleshwaram circle, it could have been well utilised there.

All in all good effort by BBMP, any efforts towards easing pedestrians problems will be well received. The technology and method is always debatable though.

The Exec. Engg. of Road widening, who has issued this EOI request is contactable on an email ID, does any one here think we can make efforts to bring this to his notice ?

ssheragu's picture

skywalks

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while skywalks are most welcome, it is wise to put up slopes adjcent to skywalks to take care of power cuts wich will result in non functional escalators. care should be taken to ensure that the skywalks are heavy duty catering to public usage / utility / ruggednes / vagaries of weather also such places which have not been identfied for escalators, should have underpasses with slopes fr climbing up & down Srinath Heragu
DeepikaNBhardwaj's picture

Did u Pay attention to last line in the SKYWALK tender Notice??

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The last line of the tender says "46 Agencies who have been already short listed and empanelled in response to notification no. BMP(CE(I)/Empanelment/PR/2006-07, Dated: 05-02-07 and notification no.EE/RW2 /PR/215/07-08, Dated: 26-12-07 may need not submit their details." That means the tenders were released in 2007 as well http://www.bmponline.org/... I compared both the tenders, almost all the skywalks listed are repeated. So i am wondering if any of these were actually built by BBMP/Agencies in last one year........ Looking at the condition of pedestrians in these high traffic areas and the pace these skywalks are being built....i think the wait will be long enought before they would be actually built.

Regards

Deepika N Bhardwaj

Regards

Deepika N Bhardwaj

silkboard's picture

Good catch there + old posts

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Actually, we have been tracking these skywalks for sometime now.

Old post from March 2007 at Metblogs - a file called ceinfra - tender cover note I think))

And from Dec 2007, right here on Praja - 56 motorized skywalks

Plus, our friend at BangaloreBuzz would have archived newspaper articles from around the same time frames.

We don't bother tracking these things, so they (BBMP etc) simply make merry.

BBMP's bus shelters project is on similar lines, 140 bus bays (or just shelters?) have been in the news for 2 years now.

ashwin's picture

What a waste !

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We will keep prioritizing cars over people, shrink our footpaths till they are unwalkable, remove signal & create oneways so that roads are uncrossable, then build skywalks that are up several flights of stairs which the old, handicapped or injured cannot use, the rest would rather not, and in the end look on with amazement as the skywalks remain bereft of walkers pretty much through the day. But who cares, they make good places to hang billboards. Everybody wins. Except those who loose.
ssheragu's picture

new locatios for underpasses & definitely not skywalks

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ssheragu in connection with skywalks, I would like to suggest ONE PLACE where underpasses are absolutely necessary; this is on Airport Road at HAL; there are a lot of units of HAL like HAL Aircraft Division, Overhaul Division, Air Force Unit & NFTC on one side of the road while the other HAL units like HAL Club, HAL Foundry & Forge Division and HAL Helicopter Division are on otherside; Daily a lot of HAL employess and needless to say a lot many of the public cross over from one side to the other putting themsleves and the traffic to mutual danger, disarray & discomfort. since these units extend for a distane of about 1 or 2 Kms along Airport Road, at least three underpasses are rquired along this road; We at Praja will do a yeoman service if we can manage to convince BDA to construct sloping underpasses or alternately convince HAL to construct underpasses for the benefit of its employess and the public. Is it possible for anyone in Praja to suggest a way or method for getting these underpasses constructed; Would RTI can be used for this; Please help. Thanks Srinath Heragu
psaram42's picture

A case for the Magic Box under pass.

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I have not much knowledge or understanding of sky walks.

If my understanding is correct under passes using perhaps the Magic Box Concept should be there as a standard feature along the length of any corridor/arterial/Main road, like in Bangalore Railway station area. They will be required in hundreds if not thousands throughout Bangalore. The design of these pedestrian road crossing underpasses should be standardized with relevant cost estimates by professional Civil Engineers/Consultants.

BBMP should plan adding these on a regular yearly basis in a planned manner throughout the city. The idea is to segregate the Vehicular and pedestrian traffic through out Bangalore.

After posting my comments I looked through posts by Silkboard and Aswin. Yes what a waste! Is it our posts? The sky walks? Or Praja “Know” without “Caring”? It is high time Praja should meet up with BBMP if not done so already.

ssheragu's picture

magic box as underpass

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ssheragu it is a good suggestion by psaram42 Magic boxes can be redesigned - aesthetically - with strong emphasis on utility - making it just sufficient for pedestrians so that hawkers are not able to use these - facilitating ease of maintenance We can definitely have a dialogue with BBMP on this I am fully with you psaram42 Thanks Srinath Heragu
narayan82's picture

this should be of some good news!

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Finally BBMP seem to have go it right. I Havent seen this yet, but I hope someone can post us a picture soon? Subway built in 24 hours!

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore:

Some have criticized the BBMP ‘magic boxes’, but the experiment has produced another innovation: magic subways. The BBMP launched its first magic subway in Hebbal on Saturday. The subway is one of 37 planned in Bangalore with the same technology used in magic boxes. “The subways will have elevated boxes,” BBMP chief engineer (roads) K S Krishna Reddy said. The subway opposite Hebbal police station was assembled in a ‘’record time’’ of 24 hours. Five subways have been proposed at Basaveshwara Circle, Hosur Road, CBI junction, Chalukya Circle and Race Course Road.

 

So can we use this now as an example to build more?

Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
silkboard's picture

wow! Just 24 hours!?

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One can see why BBMP loves magic boxes. Speed, and reduction in all that tendering process and working with public work/construction mafia. If these boxes can be standardized, BBMP can bid for these pre-fabricated concrete boxes, and tender out the work to install these separately.

Can someone from North Bangalore area post some pics, want to see how these subways look.

asj's picture

An absolute waste of resources.

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I agree with the view that this is vehicles being prioritised to no end. Its rather simple whether at a junction (crossroads or a T) or a mid-section of a long carriage way, all we need are pedestrian refuges. Lets look at the image below -

Now lets presume the traffic lights cycle is 20 seconds for each direction. The traffic is moving from A to B, D and F. This means pedestrians can cross half way on H, G, E and C sections. Now let us presume, that next, all cars coming along E were given a green light to go to  F, H and B. This means pedestrians on sections A, C, D and G can cross halfway. In short, during the traffic lights cycle it self pedestrians can cross over with safety, for some sections depending on what part of the cycle they arrive to cross, pedestrians may take a minute to cross over across two sections.

This is the most cost-effective means of serving both the purposes. Even with skywalks or subways, traffic lights are going to be needed to coordinate vehicular movement anyway, so why not use the pedestrian refuges (grey rectangular boxes).

Currently in Pune, the problem is that traffic lights try to make pedestrians cross across entire road lengths (sometimes 4-6 lanes within 6 seconds). This leaves pedestrians having to take risks, oft leading to chaos on our roads as vehicles try to pass them on either side. 

ASJ 

CKannan's picture

37 Pedestrian subways

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Is anybody having the location of 37 new subways as said by narayan82. I need to know about whether places on old madras road is included CKannan
CKannan
ar_t_kaushik's picture

Skywalk - Needs attention!!!

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When we talk about skywalk It should solve the basic questions; 1. User friendly medium, 2. Accessible 24x7, 3. Protected from rain and sun, 4. Attract people to use the medium. 5. Time saving. Bangalore is a place where there are n types of people living.Like, From a poor individual to a very rich individual with varying age group. Not everyone is aware of latest technology.. The medium should cater all types of people of different age group. It should also follow Go Green promotion!! Its really good to hear using escalators in public spaces. Practically its not at all serving the needs. Example: When escalators were installed in Chennai metro stations, there are so many accidents happen due to people not aware of how it works. Even elderly and physically challenged found very unease to use the service. And the service been stopped from the public usuage for more than six months. Is it because of lack of knowledge or usuablity of the space? Its all about how we adopt technology to right place and location. Then we should think about where it can be applied and where its cannot be. Growth of the city is not to have loads of technology, Its all about how the needs are planned and executed without forcing the environment. Kaushik.T Enviromentalist, Architect

Kaushik.T

Architect

silkboard's picture

in papers today - well done BBMP!

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There is talk of elevator driven skywalks. In true newspaper tradition, just talk, no mention of a real project, no dates.

But, can't just ding BBMP like that, they completed yet another pedestrian subway in just over 24 hours (Nrupatunga Road). Great show. Cost was about 40 lakhs I hear. Any good show on "execution" must be lauded. Don't need any more new projects. Just sit and execute on pending announcements and CTTP, we'd be home in 7-8 years.

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