Noida authority ready to build foot overbridges, but won’t invest money

Noida authority wants to build foot overbridges on public private partnership model

Noida authority chief executive officer Deepak Agarwal on Thursday said he has directed his staff to build foot overbridges wherever needed, but the authority won’t invest money in building them.

The Noida authority has asked for a survey across the city to judge the points where FOBs are required. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

The decision comes after residents demanded FOBs on Noida Expressway so that pedestrians can cross the road safely.

“I have directed my staff to conduct a detailed survey of Noida after residents demanded an FOB on Noida Expressway. We cannot deal with FOB demands with a piecemeal approach. We will have to address such demands on all roads across the city,” said Agarwal.

The authority has planned to build FOBs under public-private partnership model at many points. Under the PPP model, the authority will not have to invest money in the project.

“Once the survey is conducted, we will rope in a private agency that will recover FOB cost out of advertising on the space around the overbridge. The agency that will buy advertising rights for the least amount of time will be selected. We will build FOBs wherever required, but we will not invest any money in their construction,” said Agarwal.

In the past, a private agency invested Rs1.5 crore on construction of a FOB on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis in Noida. The agency is recovering its cost out of advertising for 10 years.

“But the agency ready to build an FOB and recover the cost in less than 10 years will get the advertising rights,” said Agarwal.