First pedestrian walkover to come up opposite zoo

Kolkata: The city's first pedestrian walkover with escalator is coming up opposite the Zoological garden.

The walkover will be constructed by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis. Karukrit the well known advertising company will be the private player.

Traffic jams in front of the zoo are frequent during the winter and on holidays. Vehicles standing bumper to bumper and in long queue are seen during winter. Thousands of visitors who come to the zoo find it very difficult to cross the road.

The traffic wing of Kolkata Police had suggested construction of pedestrian walkovers at important road intersections to iron out jams. Accordingly, the civic authorities chalked out the plan to construct the walkover on PPP model. The walkover will have an escalator to facilitate the pedestrians including senior citizens and infirm people. Once constructed, the traffic jam near the zoo will be a matter of the past. Beside cars, heavy duty vehicles take the route to reach Vidyasagar Setu and so smooth traffic movement is welcome. The private player will put up advertisements to realise money. Civic authorities will request more private players to come forward and take part in the construction of pedestrian walkover.

Earlier, the pedestrian walkovers constructed by KMC did not yield favourable response from the publi. For many years the pedestrian walkover near Ultadanga, opposite NRS hospital had remain unutilised. But because of sustained campaign by city police, people are using the walkovers which help to maintain smooth flow of traffic.