Escalator Foot Over Bridge

Projects Category

Escalator Foot Over Bridge

Dhaka North City Corporation is installing the country's first ever electric pedestrian escalator as part of a footbridge in the capital's Banani to encourage people to use overpass and prevent unsafe road crossing.
The Tk 1.5-crore escalator, imported from Malaysia, is being installed under a World Bank sponsored scheme, Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE), which began in mid-2009.The escalator, being built on a pilot basis, will connect Sainik Club and Banani road-11 across airport road.It is intended to increase traffic mobility and reduce accidents by encouraging pedestrians, particularly the elderly people, to use the overhead bridge instead of transversely crossing the busy road, said Shehab Ullah, CASE project director.The facility is expected to open to public this month and Dhaka North City Corporation will maintain it.It, however, will not be useful for the physically challenged people, as it will only elevate the pedestrians onto the bridge and then they will have to take the manual staircase to get down.It will also be difficult for those heading from Kakoli end to use the facility as the escalator is being fitted to the south side of the footbridge, said Abrar Simon, a resident of Banani.The north (Kakoli) side of the bridge will continue to have a pair of regular staircase.“We will survey how it impacts on pedestrian's behaviour,” said Shehab, adding, “If it achieves the desired goal, the city corporations may replicate it elsewhere as well.”A total of 23 new footbridges are being built on major thoroughfares in the capital under the CASE scheme, he said.Shamsul Hoque, a professor of civil engineering at Buet, said the initiative itself was good but its sustainability depended on proper maintenance and continuity.“It should not be a showy beginning of a miserable end, as it happens in Bangladesh in many cases,” he added.