Noida’s pedestrian bridges not differently abled friendly

Lack of escalators at pedestrian bridges in the city has made it difficult for the elderly and differently abled persons in Noida to cross roads.

Lack of escalators at pedestrian bridges in the city has made it difficult for the elderly and differently abled persons in Noida to cross roads.

(Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

There is a total of 11 operational pedestrian bridges located in different areas. Of these, only one bridge, located between Sector 18 and Sector 38A, has escalators.

“differently abled people cannot cross to the other side of a road. Noida roads are not designed keeping in mind the differently abled or the elderly. With a concrete central verge of three-four feet in height, it is difficult for them to cross. A differently abled person can only travel in a car in Noida,” Atul Gupta, president of UP architect’s welfare association, said.

The Noida authority has built a new pedestrian bridge between Mall of India and the TGIP Mall on Master Plan-II Road, which has a lift for the convenience of the differently abled and the elderly.

“This new pedestrian bridge is almost ready. We are installing a lift for this bridge. It will be opened to the public on September 30 if the work is completed,” the contractor for the bridge construction said.

“The first bridge in Noida, between Sector 18 and Sector 38A, has escalators but it does not have a lift. As a result, an elderly person, who faces problem in walking and on wheelchairs, cannot use it. Similarly, a differently abled person cannot use it either,” MS Saxema, a retired army official, said.

BK Singh, the project engineer of the Noida authority, said, “All new pedestrian bridges will have lifts. We are constructing FOBs on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. In this scheme, a private agency builds a pedestrian bridge and recover the cost by advertising on it for 10 years. After 10 years, the authority will take control of the bridge and advertising.”

In the first phase, the authority had decided to build 13 pedestrian bridges at various locations across the city. The authority decided to build a total 24 pedestrian bridges along major roads to ensure the safety of pedestrians.