MA&UD minister KT Rama Rao will be inaugurating the newly completed 5 Foot-over-Bridges (FoBs) soon. Once open, the bridges will help pedestrians cross roads without the hassle of facing speeding traffic, thus avoiding road accidents.

Following requests from Hyderabad and Cyberabad police commissionerates, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) took up the construction of 22 FoBs at major junctions that were identified as accident-prone zones.

The five completed FoBs are situated near Hyderabad Central in Punjagutta, St Ann’s High School in Secunderabad, Neredmet bus stop, Swapna theatre in Rajendra Nagar, and near NSSK High School in Ferozguda.

For all the five FoBs, works on walkways, staircase erection, roof sheeting, mild steel railing, the crash barrier, and flooring were completed. Lifts and escalators were also installed, with the costs adding up to Rs 16 crore.

GHMC Engineer-in-Chief Mohd Ziauddin shares that GHMC took up the project to safely help pedestrians cross the roads. The FoBs would help pedestrians circumvent the streets completely, especially in busy areas with markets and malls, he adds.

The state government has opted for a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement to build these as it is against the exploitation of FoBs through advertisements. Various departments have been asked to build FoBs from their budget as advertisements would make FoBs uglier.