One skywalk, two ceremonies as rival parties vie for credit

Days before construction work is to begin on the Borivali skywalk, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress both seized the opportunity to squeeze some political mileage by organising ground-breaking ceremonies...

Days before construction work is to begin on the Borivali skywalk, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress both seized the opportunity to squeeze some political mileage by organising ground-breaking ceremonies or bhoomi poojans at the site.

While the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority — which is constructing the skywalk — is yet to organise any function to kickstart work on the Borivali project, Sunday saw a Congress bhoomi poojan being planned even as BJP city chief Gopal Shetty led another ceremony with a coconut-breaking ritual. “I have been looking after this project since 2002,” Shetty said. “Several locals from the area have been complaining how precious time is wasted while commuting from West to East here. This skywalk will now ensure that east-west pedestrian movement is possible,” he added.

Not long thereafter, a group of Congressmen, party flags in hand, held a similar ceremony nearby.

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Shetty told locals that the sky-walk, measuring about 1.5 km in length, would be completed within six months. “We have set aside the contract period as six months. But I will make sure that it is completed at the earliest, in five months,” he said.

The Borivali skywalk is part of a Rs 600-crore project initiated by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to decongest station areas in Mumbai and in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The contract for the Borivali skywalk has been awarded to a firm named Dhanashree Constructions.

In Borivali, where two skywalks are planned, one will connect Platform No 8 of the railway station to the BMC’s road overbridge nearby, while the other one will connect Platform No 6 and 7 to the eastern side of station.

Calling the skywalk the need of the hour, Shetty added that it would reduce accidents involving pedestrians and vehicles. The Borivali skywalk will enable people to directly reach the bustling Chandravarkar lane and the bustling business lane of Borivali (West) easily from Borivali (East).

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In all, there are 50 skywalks proposed in the MMR, of which 11 are to be built outside Mumbai’s limits. The first skywalk was constructed at Bandra (East), which connects the station to Kalanagar. Work on the exclusive walkway is already underway at Virar and at Kanjurmarg, the latter being a skywalk-cum-hawking plaza, the first of its kind.

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