Ahmedabad: Nine foot-overbridges — five on SG Highway and four in other areas — planned a year ago are still ideas on the drawing board, with work not having begun on a single bridge.No contractor appears enthused by these projects, which AMC’s standing committee announced at its June 18, 2025, meeting.“The projects were designed on a public-private partnership basis entailing the granting of advertising rights,” an AMC official said. “Tenders were invited, but no contractor expressed interest. Conditions are now being modified to float a fresh tender.”The official said a traffic survey was conducted to assess the need for foot-overbridges in the city, after which specific locations were finalised. “On SG Highway, spots were selected near Nirma University, Gota Flyover, Binoori Hotel in Thaltej, Grand Bhagwati Hotel, and Rajpath Club,” the official said.He added that foot-overbridges were also planned near Krishnanagar Junction and Vastrapur lake.These bridges are urgently needed given the infrastructural projects under way across the city.National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is currently constructing a flyover at Prahladnagar Junction on SG Highway, while another flyover has been planned at Chharodi Crossroads. Additionally, the SG Highway upgrade project is under way.AMC is executing development and beautification works on service roads parallel to SG Highway. As a result, traffic congestion on SG Highway has worsened.With the rise in vehicular traffic, pedestrians face significant difficulty crossing roads.The 76-km SP Ring Road encircles Ahmedabad. Rapid development in areas outside the ring road — such as Vastral, Kathwada, Shilaj, Bhadaj, Shela, Ghuma, and Bopal — has increased the traffic load on SP Ring Road.Currently, only a single circular pedestrian bridge exists in the eastern part of the city, in Vastral. No foot-overbridge has been built on SP Ring Road in the western sector.Given the rising pedestrian movement, Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority has decided to conduct a pedestrian-movement study as part of its project to widen SP Ring Road to six lanes. Five foot-overbridges have been planned on SP Ring Road.BOXSurvey report filed on double-decker flyoversAhmedabad: AMC approved a proposal to conduct a traffic survey to construct double-decker flyovers or underpasses at five major junctions on SG Highway, including Palladium Mall, Iscon, Karnavati Club, and YMCA Club.The Central Road Research Institute surveyed 10 junctions, including the five on SG Highway. CRRI has now submitted a draft report recommending whether to build flyovers or underpasses at these 10 junctions.
