Ravi Srivastava for BeyondHeadlines
One of the main agenda of Aam Aadmi Party is to have the implementation of “Nagar Raj Bill “approved by State Governments including Maharashtra is gathering dust in the Corridors of power for implementation in letter & spirit, the Swaraj theme of AAP demands the empowerment of “Mohalla sabhas” in urban wards/clusters and “Gram Sabhas” in rural areas/Villages. Provision of Roads, Bridges, culvert, subway/Under pass, community centre, Dispensary, School, Police station, utilities should be finalised and approved by the Local collectives like Mohalla Sabha/Gram Sabha and not by a “Babu” or a ‘Neta” sitting in cosy Air conditioned chambers of Mantralaya, it is the local populace who know the best, what is good and convenient for them, such practice do exist in many countries and called “Participative Governance”, but we are an exception.
The case in point here is a “Skywalk” constructed for Rs. 36 crore of Taxpayers hard earned money in over 3 years by CIDCO (who make cities). This skywalk has a length of approx 1.7KM and travels from Kharghar Railway station ends at Utsav Chowk crossing Hiranandani chowk and part of Sion- Panvel Highway with a few exits and an uprising escalator at the Kharghar Railway station. This Skywalk was inaugurated with much fanfare by Sh Sharad Pawar Agri. Minister after a wait of approx. 5 months post completion, since a VIP is a must for cutting Ribbons to garner votes in forthcoming Elections. After 7 months of its opening the Skywalk proved to be a dud investment without serving any purpose or utility to public at large and only benefited the contractor, corrupt Politicians and Bureaucrats.
Skywalk has proved to be a monumental waste of money, it is barely used by 500-700 people in whole day due to its length and height, even escalator provided to lure people to use it is of no avail, The sky walk is lit whole Night and incurs an expenditure of more than Rs. 60K per month in Electricity Bills alone. Elderly/Women feel insecure to move on it during night since there is no security deployed on the skywalk. Instead of such a Phantom skywalk a couple of cross over Bridges with escalators would have sufficed the need of Commuters who cross the Highway and occasionally hit by speeding vehicles.
Who is answerable for this criminal waste of Public Money? We raise a serious question, the same may be the fate of another ambitious project of CIDCO “Navi Mumbai Metro Rail” which should not meet the same fate for want of commuters.
