Twenty-two more FOBs for city

HYDERABAD: Twenty-two more Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) are likely to dot the city in the coming days as also new bus shelters, said Minister for Backward Class Welfare M. Mukesh Goud here on Wednesday.

Mr. Goud accompanied by Secunderabad MP Anjan Kumar Yadav formally opened two (FOBs) at Ameerpet and Khairtabad built at a cost of Rs. 25 lakh each. Interestingly, people were already using them for sometime now and both structures will have to be removed and shifted elsewhere later as they fall into the metro rail line one corridor between Miyapur and L.B.Nagar.

The duo on a whirlwind tour also opened water fountains at Indira Park set up at a cost of Rs. 30 lakh and a modern bus shelter at Gandhi Hospital which also has a digital display of information of services. Automatic parking system too was inaugurated at Basheerbagh.

Additional Commissioner (Advertisements) G. Vani Mohan informed that 500 locations within the core city area were chosen for construction of modern bus shelters on a design, finance, build, maintain and transfer mode with each costing Rs. 5 to Rs. 7 lakh with seating and dust bin provision, ATM, bus and train reservations.

Each shelter will have a digital display with GIS/GPS technology and tracking of information of buses arrivals for every 30 seconds interval. Another 642 existing ordinary shelters too are to be converted into modern shelters under the public private partnership mode with advertisement rights.

She further stated that while 50 new FOBs were being planned, tenders were finalised for 22 and location hunting was on for 28 others with escalators and elevators. Automated parking system was being tried out on four roads and the charges are Rs.10 for a car and Rs. 5 for a two-wheeler for an hour.

At Indira Park, activists of the striking A.P. Major Gram Panchayat Sarpanches Forum whose protest camp was across the road, laid siege to the Minister’s vehicle and did not allow him to move till he visited their camp.

They alleged that despite the Chief Minister’s promise to pay Rs. 350 crore bills for streetlights, officials were not relenting.

Other demands include enhancing their status to a ‘C’ grade municipality, sanctioning sanitary inspector posts and more funds in tune with the 74th amendment made by Rajiv Gandhi whose name the government chants all the time. Mr. Goud assured to take up the matter with the Chief Minister Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.