Skywalk near Mumbai to open before monsoon, says civic body

The wait for the second arm of the skywalk in Kalyan (East) will get longer as the Kalyan- Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) will not be able to meet its March 31 deadline.

Last year, when one stretch of the skywalk connecting Siddharth Nagar in Kalyan (East) was open to the public, the civic body had said it would to stretch connecting Kolsewadi by March.

On Wednesday, the KDMC said it would not be able to complete the work because of shortage of funds. “We cannot complete the work of the skywalk this month as we have not got funds from the MMRDA. The work is going on slowly,” said Tarun Juneja, executive engineer, KDMC.

He said, “The second arm will be completed in two months. The skywalk will be ready before monsoon.”

Commuters alighting at Kalyan railway station are forced to take the narrow subways to go to Kolsewadi in Kalyan (East).

The Siddharth Nagar arm of the skywalk has helped curb trespassing the track meant for goods train.

“It has been almost a year the first arm of the skywalk was opened. The civic body should have completed work of both the arms at the same time,” said Vijay Mehta, 45 ,a commuters who walk to the Kalyan railway station from Kolsewadi daily crossing narrow subways.

The second arm will start from the foot overbridge at Kalyan station and end at Ganesh Mandir Chowk that leads to Kolsewadi in Kalyan (East).

“Since the project started seven years ago, there has been delay in completing it. The civic body claimed there were hurdles from the railways and the MMRDA which caused the delay,” said Sunil Mhatre, 45, a commuter who travels from Kalyan railway station to Thane daily.

Built by the KDMC, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is funding the Rs35-crore project.

Started in 2011, the work was delayed as the civic body had missed several deadlines due to changes being made in the project plan of the skywalk.

An MMRDA official, requesting anonymity, said, “We are working on allotting the remaining funds to the civic body for the project.”