CHENNAI: The corporation on Friday announced that the construction work on its long-pending skywalk project connecting the Mambalam railway station and the T Nagar bus terminus is set to start soon.In a statement, corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan said a detailed project report (DPR) was ready and that after receiving administrative sanction, the project would be tendered out.“The cost of the skywalk is estimated at Rs 30.35 crore,” the statement said.The project would connect the pedestrian foot-over-bridge (FOB) at Mambalam railway station and help commuters avoid vendors on their way to the bus terminus. The structure will align with the Railway Border Road and Madley Road . A small group of vendors on the Railway Border Road abutting the railway compound wall would be evicted to facilitate the construction.“The skywalk will be 600m long and 4m wide,” the statement said, adding the structure will be fitted with escalators to provide easy access for senior citizens.The sky walk will have three entry/exit points. Besides the bus terminus and the railway station, commuters can access the facility from South Usman Road opposite the bus terminus.Conceived in 2015, the project had been in limbo due to technical problems involving alignment, construction of pillars and establishing land ownership, corporation officials said. In March, TOI reported that the civic body had achieved a breakthrough with Southern Railway in terms of land usage for the project. The railway too is in the middle of extending the width of the existing FOB at the station.“There were issues with respect to land ownership on Railway Border Road. These have been sorted out and no land acquisition or transfer process is necessary with the railway,” a corporation official said.“We had to deliberate if pillars (for the skywalk) ought to be laid in the middle of Madley Road subway. It has now been decided that the subway’s parapet wall would be sufficient (to hold the pillars),” the official added.The skywalk would have a 5.5m ground clearance. Funds for the project would be drawn from the Chennai Smart City Limited. Sources told TOI design elements of the project are yet to be approved. “After the finer details are approved, the project would be sent to the Smart City Board for sanction,” the official added.

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