Namaskar,
This is a criminal case.
The skywalk concept was bad in law in the first place.
<<<"As we were constructing the skywalks, we realised that at most places there was very little space for exit staircases. We did not have any other option but to cancel the plans to construct elevators since they will require more space," said Gaikwad.>>>
I mean what is this crap.
What about the tonnes of sworn affidavits, corporators and representatives representations and international consultants detailed project reports, actual physical site conditions before planning.
And this officer says they didn't know in advance there was no space.
Was any environment impact analysis ever done.
In value maybe less than Adarsh, CWG, Telecom, but in losing precious daily productive hours of lakhs of people, far greater.
The overhead metro will destroy the GDP of Mumbai even more.
Has anyone bothered to do a DPR on what is known as Post Occupancy Evaluation, for such gross monuments of bureaucratic impositions.
MMRDA says no place for escalators, lifts.
Some skywalks don't even have proper staircases.
The widths of the skywalks are around four metres, the staircases at either end of hundreds of metres length, are one metre width, get on one end, say the railway station side, and you can't get off in between, till hundreds of metres away, Vile Parle West, Bandra West, and most other skywalks.
What utter disdain to the Development Control Regulations, which specify minimum widths of one and a half metres for public staircases, and that for fire escape purposes, they are supposed to be not more than thirty metres away from any point.
How then were these approved by the MCGM.
Has anyone seen skywalks at say, Ghatkopar East, the columns occupy the otherwise unencroached footpaths, so now, pedestrians can't walk on the foot path, the skywalk is hardly used, and the roads are full of people and vehicles, rendering the entire exercise totally meaningless.
On Ghatkopar West side, the skywalk supports occupy both foot paths, due to the A frame design, hawkers occupy the whatever available footpaths, and even one full road lane of MG Road.
Are we civilised.
How can MMRDA get away with butchering Mumbai's foot paths, roads, and daily lives.
Have MMRDA, MCGM officials beyond junior engineer level ever seen the ground reality.
For sheer idiocy, the skwalk project in Mumbai will take the cake, closely followed by the monorail and metro.
Monorail columns, taking just two rails, in Chembur area are around two metre by two metre square about twenty metres apart.
Metro columns on Vaersova Andheri Ghatkopar route, taking wide viaducts, are about two metre diametre, fifty or more metres apart.
Who will take the risk of travelling on this metro.
But back to the skywalk.
There has to be a CBI investigation into such dubious contracts, for example, costings of the skywalk per square metre, are even more than the sea link, etc., and the final utilisation is not even quarter of confidently predicted figures, like the sea link is also under utilised, only fifty per cent of projection.
Jagdeep DESAI
Architect
Secretary
Founder Trustee
Forum for Improving Quality of Life in Mumbai Suburbs
>>>
On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 9:18 AM, A.V.Shenoy
<shenoyav@gmail.com> wrote:
| No escalators for seniors on skywalks in Mumbai Published: Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010, 4:29 IST
By Ninad Siddhaye | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA |
|
There is bad news for millions of daily skywalk users, especially the senior citizens. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has said that it is not possible to construct escalators on 35 out of its 36 skywalks due to lack of space near their exits. Speaking about the skywalk project which originally included more than 50 skywalks to be constructed across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), metropolitan commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad assured that all the 36 skywalks will be thrown open for Mumbaikars by this year-end. He, however, accepted the fact that the authority was not in a position to construct escalators on most of the skywalks. "As we were constructing the skywalks, we realised that at most places there was very little space for exit staircases. We did not have any other option but to cancel the plans to construct elevators since they will require more space," said Gaikwad. Only the Kandivli (East) skywalk connecting the railway station to the Western Express Highway will have escalators, added the commissioner. The decision has been criticised by SP Kinjawadekar, president of All India Senior Citizens' Confederation. "Escalators would make life easier for senior citizens suffering from various age-related ailments such as joint pain and heart problems. We insist that the MMRDA keeps that in mind. And if not, we will agitate against the issue and demand that the skywalks have escalators," said Kinjawadekar. As per the original plan, the metropolitan authority had planned to construct hundreds of shops on the walkways naming them "elevated shopping plaza". The plan came crashing down when the shopkeepers' association won a case against MMRDA preventing the authority from constructing a single shop on the walkways. The authority also had to cancel plans to construct skywalks in the South Mumbai region after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) heritage committee refused to give them a go-ahead. When the first skywalk at Bandra (East) was constructed, the authority invited tenders for construction of elevators, escalators and security of the skywalk from various advertising companies. The companies in return were to get advertising rights for the skywalks for a period of ten years. This plan too went horribly wrong for the authority since Reliance Big Advertising company, which bought the advertising and maintenance right at a whopping Rs13 crore, could not pay up the amount in time forcing MMRDA to cancel the tender. Gaikwad on Monday said that the authority was in the process of calling for tenders inviting bidders for advertising and maintenance of the two skywalks in Bandra (East and West). | |
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