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PU-PGI underpass to come up for ₹7.5 crore in Chandigarh
The city’s third pedestrian underpass, set to come up between Panjab University and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, will be the widest and equipped with escalators and elevators to ease the movement of patients visiting the hospital
The city’s third pedestrian underpass, set to come up between Panjab University and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, will be the widest and equipped with escalators and elevators to ease the movement of patients visiting the hospital.
At 15 metre, it will be wider than the Rose Garden underpass, which is 12-metre wide.
The increased width has been provided to allow for additional features, such as escalators and elevators, on both sides of the underpass. Pedestrians will have to cover around 40 metres to cross the underpass, which will be 3-metre in height. On the surface, both sides around the underpass will have landscaping.
The UT urban planning department has already given the go-ahead to the construction. The department recently approved the drawings of the project. The project was given in-principle approval by UT administrator VP Singh Badnore in November last year.
After putting it on the back-burner in the wake of the pandemic and budget cuts imposed by the Centre, the UT administration has now put the project on a fast track. With drawings and designs in place, the UT engineering department will now initiate the tendering process.
The administration had come under severe criticism for first constructing a pedestrian underpass between Rose Garden and Sector 17, which has a very low footfall, rather than adhering to the long-standing demand for an underpass between PU and PGIMER.
Before finalising the plans, this time around, the administration got a daily count of pedestrian and traffic conducted. “It concluded a substantial footfall necessitating an underpass as per the Indian Road Congress guidelines,” UT chief engineer CB Ojha said.
Six months for construction
The work on the ₹7.5-crore project is expected to start within this fiscal.Ojha said: “The project will start before March end, and is likely to be completed in six months.”
During the construction of the underpass, for minimising inconvenience to patients coming to the PGIMER and maintaining a smooth flow of vehicles on the road, the engineering department is working on a traffic plan.
“We are currently devising a traffic plan for the construction site. Once the project starts, traffic would have to be diverted. As the site witnesses heavy vehicular traffic and pedestrian footfall, our endeavour will be to limit the time needed to close the roads. Slip roads will be also used for vehicle movements,” said Ojha.
Shops for generating revenue
As per the plans developed by the UT engineering department, the underpass will have 12 shops. Sized 80 square foot each, they will come up on one side of the underpass (left side when going from PGIMER to PU).
“The utility shops are planned on the lines of the Delhi metro shopping arcades. When rented out, the shops are expected to generate a revenue of around ₹5 lakh per month for the administration. This will help recover a part of the construction costs of the underpass,” said Ojha.
