Mohan Nagar foot overbridge to be ready by Sept-end

The FOB at Mohan Nagar intersection will help pedestrian movement between two major roads — the GT Road and the Link Road.

A much-needed relief is in sight for pedestrians crossing the busy road at the Mohan Nagar intersection with a 150m long foot overbridge (FOB) likely to be opened by the end of the month. Officials of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) said the project is pegged at ₹3 crore and will be the first FOB in the city to have escalators.

The under-construction foot overbridge, at Mohan Nagar, in Ghaziabad, Thursday, September 12, 2019. (Sakib Ali / HT Photo)

According to authority officials, the FOB will help pedestrian movement between two major roads — the GT Road and the Link Road. The Mohan Nagar intersection is located at the tri-junction of two roads and witnesses heavy pedestrian movement.

“The under-construction FOB will have escalators on both sides. One end is on the GT Road near a mall and it will connect to another FOB which is already constructed over the Link Road on the other end. With the help of escalators on the Link Road side, the pedestrians can access the new as well as the old FOB,” VN Singh, chief engineer, GDA, said.

At present, the traffic police had barricaded the GT Road, the section below the 9.4km elevated metro route, at Mohan Nagar. However, in the absence of an FOB or other facilities, pedestrians are forced to climb over the jersey barriers to move between the Link Road and the GT Road, making the crossing risky as the intersection is signal-free.

At present, the city has FOBs at different locations at Vaishali, Vasundhara, Mohan Nagar, old bus stand, outside district headquarters and Hapur Chungi, but they have no escalators. As a result, the pedestrian movement on the FOBs is less and they prefer to jaywalk across main roads.

Apart from the existing FOBs, the NCR transport corporation, which is taking up construction of the Regional Rapid Transit System, has planned seven FOBs over the Delhi-Meerut Road, including one under the jurisdiction of Meerut district.