To cater to 30,000 people daily

The much-awaited ITO Skywalk was thrown open to the public on Monday by Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri.

The skywalk, which is thefirst of its kind structure in the national Capital, will cater to around 30,000 people every day by connecting the ‘W’ point Junction: Sikandara Road, Mathura Road, Tilak Road and Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and Foot Over Bridge (FOB) near Hans Bhawan.

The skywalk constructed with a “unique” feature of helical type circular rings will ease congestion and safe movement for the people going to different places such as Supreme Court, Pragati Maidan metro station, Tilak Marg, Mandi House, Lady Irwin College, Delhi Police Headquarters and other 25 major offices and institutions situated around the skywalk.

During the inauguration ceremony, Union Minister attacked the Aam Aadmi Party Government (AAP) by saying the construction of the skywalk was fully funded by the Union Government, not the Delhi Government. “I am delighted that my Ministry has fully funded Rs54.34 crore for this state-of-the-art skywalk along with DDA.

Hurdles were created to stall the project by those who have turned politics of negativity into a fine art. However, the skywalk is a reaffirmation that we the citizens of Delhi will not bow to such attention seekers anymore and will not allow a fake narrative to win,” said Puri.

The Union Minister said, “In a great day for development and decongestion in the city, the resilient and industrious citizens of Delhi have given themselves the gift of a world-class ultra modern Skywalk at a busy ITO intersection. It is a victory of hard work over fake narrative and claiming credit. I want to congratulate the citizens of Delhi and the engineers and officers of Public Works Department (PWD), Central Public Works Department (CPWD), DDA and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) for making this project a reality.”

Responding to Puri’s charge, the Delhi Government took to twitter and shared the timeline of the project saying 20 per cent funding was given by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led Government.

The length of the skywalk is 400m with 5 meter width and the length of loop and ramp is 130m having width of 3m. The length of FOB at Hans Bhawan is 54 meter having width of 5 meter. “The skywalk and FOB are made of steel and granite has been used for the flooring, while the railings are of steel. Roof is fitted with tensile fabric roofing,” said an official.

Further the skywalk is fitted with seven glass lifts with a capacity of 20 people, LED fittings, solar PV modules, Wi-Fi, CCTV. A police booth has been constructed under the skywalk to help the public in need. An official said there is enough space at ground floor at various locations, thus kiosks will be set up to buy essential item.  

“This is a wonderful gift given to the public by the Government. Earlier, it was a hurdle to cross the road from Pragati Maidan to reach the Supreme Court but now it is very easy as one can exit the metro station and directly go to Supreme Court,” said P K Bajaj, an advocate.

Besides, Puri, the inaugural event witnessed the presence of Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal, Member of Parliament (MP) Meenakshi Lekhi, Durga Shankar Mishra Secretary MoHUA, Naresh Kumar, Chairman, NDMC, Tarun Kapur Vice-Chairman, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and other officials.