Pedestrians will eventually not have to dodge chaotic traffic while crossing roads at crowded points in the state capital. They will be able to climb on an escalator, walk the overpass and cross over in an escalator-driven pathway, popularly known as skyway escalators.

Acting on the directive of the state urban development department principal secretary Ajoy Kumar Singh, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has started planning for finalising locations for the skyway escalators.

“We received the directive from the urban development department principal secretary last week for a long-term plan to solve traffic-related issues and plan for skyway escalators at busy traffic points for the convenience of pedestrians at 10 locations,” said RMC commissioner Manoj Kumar. “We have so far identified two such locations. We will be submitting the same to the department at the earliest and after their nod start the process to issue tenders for installation, operation and maintenance of the facilities.”

He said that the East Jail Road-Circular Road stretch near Nucleus Mall and the Church Road stretch near Bahu Bazaar have been finalised for skyway escalators.

“These two stretches see a large number of pedestrians going for shopping, education and health needs throughout the day,” Kumar said.

Sources in the RMC said that soon after getting the nod from the urban development department, they would be floating a bid for inviting a project management consultant for the 10 sites to draw up a blueprint on the installation and exact dimensions of the skyway escalators.

“It is a new project for the state and we would like to have an expert consultancy draw a blueprint for proper operation and maintenance,” said an RMC official.

“Soon after the detailed project report, we will invite a global tender to install, operate and maintain the facilities. We hope to complete the process in the next few months and have the facilities functional at least near Nucleus Mall and Church Road by 2020-end. Not much time will be taken to erect the structure as we do not need much land and there would be no problem of evicting people along the road,” added the official, associated with RMC engineering wing. The source said each skyway escalator costs around Rs 2 crore.