₹15-cr skywalk at Vaishno Devi shrine to be ready by Sept 15
The skywalk project at Vaishno Devi shrine in Trikuta Hills, J&K, is expected to be completed by September 15 and made operational before Navratri festival in October. The project, costing nearly ?15 crore, aims to streamline the pilgrimage and prevent incidents like the stampede in January last year. The skywalk will be a 2.5-metre wide pedestrian flyover at an elevation of 20 feet above the existing track and will include waiting halls, toilets, and emergency exits. The length of the skywalk has been extended by 50 metres to accommodate increased footfall.
The much-awaited skywalk project being constructed at a cost of nearly ₹15 crore at Vaishno Devi shrine in Trikuta Hills of Reasi is expected to be completed by September 15 and made operational well before Navratri festival in October this year.
Following a stampede on January 1 last year that left 12 pilgrims dead and scores injured, J&K lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha had conceived the project to check multi-directional flow and chaos at the sanctum sanctorum with an aim to streamline the pilgrimage and ensure no such incident occurred again.
Chief executive officer of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board Anshul Garg said, “Hopefully by September 15 the project will be completed because it has to be made operational well before Navrarti festival in October.”
The CEO also said initially, the skywalk’s length was 200 metres but it has been extended by another 50 metres.
“The length of the sky walk has been increased by 50 metres to the existing queue near the lift (elevator) of Sridhar Bhawan. Initially, it was planned that the corridor of the second floor of Sridhar Bhawan shall be used. However, it was observed that the building was old and retrofitting was not advised by CSIR-CBRI Roorkee,” he added.
“We have also added waiting halls, toilets and emergency exits in the project and the revised cost is now nearly ₹15 crore,” said the CEO.
The sky-walk is going to be a 2.5-metre wide pedestrian flyover at an elevation of 20 feet above the existing track to serve as the entry route for yatris.
Seating arrangement for around 150 yatris has also been planned through increased width of 5-metres in a 40-metre stretch.
Initially, the board had granted an approval for the construction of yatri queue management system (sky walk) at an estimated cost of ₹9.90 crore as per the drawings submitted by School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi and a MoU was signed with Central Public Works Department (CPWD) on August 9 last year.
There shall be waiting area for specially-abled pilgrims, senior citizens and women.
“The structure work was allotted to MRC Punjab and other civil and electrical works on the deck has been allotted to SNS Technologies Jammu by the CPWD,” he said.
The first floor of Lakshmi Bhawan near the sanctum sanctorum is proposed to be utilised for the construction of waiting halls for yatris.
“An aesthetically designed entrance at the starting point of the skywalk shall enable better queue management and avoid congestion,” said the CEO.
