Noida: A single hour of rain on Thursday evening was enough to turn the temporary walkway between Aqua Line’s Sector 51 and Blue Line’s Sector 52 metro stations into a muddy stretch. Commuters, some carrying children, others lugging baggage, jostled for footing on the narrow walkway as crowds poured out of both stations during the evening rush.The chaos, captured by commuters and shared widely on X, showed swarms of passengers stranded in the four-metre-wide passage, carefully taking each step to avoid slipping. For daily commuters on this route, the scene was familiar, but only wetter than usual.At the heart of the problem is a Rs 40-crore skywalk that Noida Authority built and then discovered it could not open. The L-shaped, air-conditioned structure, equipped with travelators and launched in March 2023 with a one-year completion target, was delayed after officials realised a beam at the Sector 51 entry point blocked access. Rather than removing the beam, the Authority has now decided to extend the skywalk by 100 metres to route around it. Excavation has begun, but completion is at least two months away.
The skywalk is to be extended by 100 metres to bypass a beam, and the excavation work for the project has started outside Sector 51 metro station
The 400-metre interchange is an ordeal on a dry day. Commuters exiting Sector 51 station have to first walk to the rear of the building, take a circuitous route to reach the front, then navigate the uneven, constricted walkway — one metre wide in some places and 3-4 metres wide in others. Midway, the footpath ends, and pedestrians are forced onto the road before turning left towards Sector 52 station. A skywalk pillar stands in the middle of the walkway.Barricading for the skywalk construction lines one side, hoardings for an upcoming commercial store line the other. The temporary shade erected years ago has long since rusted away, leaving only iron bars with no shade from sun or rain.“The rainfall on Thursday led to waterlogging at this stretch. We were forced to wade through accumulated water, carefully placing each step,” said Anmol Kumar, a Sector 52 resident, a BTech student in Greater Noida who takes this route daily. “I wonder how long it will take to make the skywalk operational.”
The temporary shade erected years ago has long since rusted away, leaving only iron bars with no shade from sun or rain
Another commuter, who did not wish to be named, said commuters had improvised, placing bricks and tiles in low-lying patches to ease navigation. “If this is the situation in the first rainfall, what would happen when the monsoon arrives?” he asked.By Friday, the stretch had dried out. Vendors selling mobile accessories, sugarcane juice, books and flowers were back on the walkway. And so were the autorickshaws parked on the roadside, hailing passengers headed to Greater Noida West, adding to the congestion.The beam at Sector 51 station platform, however, is only the latest in a series of setbacks that have pushed a one-year project past its fourth year. The project was originally designed with a single-pillar structure, but the discovery of an underground metro cable during excavation forced a redesign using a two-column support system. Construction curbs imposed by the National Green Tribunal during the winter months caused further delays.“A project that should have been completed in one year is not ready in four. This shows the incompetence of the officials involved,” said Sanjeev Kumar, a Sector 51 resident. “The govt should act against such officials, penalise them, and recover the additional costs from them.”The beam at Sector 51 station platform, however, is only the latest in a series of setbacks that have pushed a one-year project past its fourth year. The project was originally designed with a single-pillar structure, but the discovery of an underground metro cable during excavation forced a redesign using a two-column support system. Construction curbs imposed by the National Green Tribunal during the winter months caused further delays.“A project that should have been completed in one year is not ready in four. This shows the incompetence of the officials involved,” said Sanjeev Kumar, a Sector 51 resident. “The govt should act against such officials, penalise them, and recover the additional costs from them.”
