Dhaula Kuan skywalk to open in February

Construction of the skywalk had hit some roadblocks and the project had got delayed twice.

NEW DELHI: The massive and state-of-the-art 1.2 km long skywalk in Dhaula Kuan, connecting the Pink Line and the Airport Express Line of the Delhi Metro, is likely to be thrown open to the public by early next month, according to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) sources.  

The construction of the skywalk had hit some roadblocks earlier due to which the project had got delayed twice and the dates for its inauguration had to be pushed once from September to December 2018, and then after failing the December deadline, it has now been decided that the skywalk would be opened for public by next month. 

Sources in the DMRC told this correspondent that the construction of the skywalk had been challenging due to the presence of multiple 220KV and 33KV high tension (HT) lines at almost all pier locations, due to which manual breaking of the hard rocks around these lines took a lot of time. Also, the presence of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) water lines and GAIL high pressure lines had to be constantly monitored so as not to damage them. 

However, a DMRC spokesperson told this newspaper, “Construction work of the Foot Over Bridge (FOB) connecting the Airport Line and the Pink Line is now almost complete. The FOB shall be ready for operations by next month. In the last few months, work had to be stopped intermittently due to the ban on construction work across the city. Heavy traffic on the adjoining roads has also been a major challenge”.

The 1.2 km long skywalk has been installed with latest and state-of-the-art technology to facilitate those commuting between the Durga Bai Deshmukh station on the Pink Line with the Dhaula Kuan station on the Airport Express Line. 

The skywalk has been fitted with 22 travelators having a total length of 648 metres along the 1,200 metre long foot over bridge. The travelators would help in the fast and convenient movement of commuters between the two Metro stations which are 2 km apart passing through the busy NH8.

The skywalk is being built keeping in mind the heat, cold, rain and dust conditions of the city. Part of the FOB is  covered with curved roof on the top along with aluminium layovers from the sides.