Mumbai: Work to have Mumbai’s first travelator on a foot over bridge will commence in early 2023. The Pedestrian Bridge will connect commuters with a metro rail, suburban railway and monorail at South Mumbai’s Jacob Circle-Mahalaxmi.

The pedestrian bridge will be constructed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to integrate three different travel modes, having a length of approximately 700 metres. The three public travel modes fall under three different government authorities.

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Mumbai Monorail runs between Jacob Circle, also known as Sant Ghadge Maharaj Chowk to Chembur and is operated by the MMRDA. Whereas, Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ underground metro rail is in advanced stage of construction by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation and Mahalaxmi is an intermediate station.

Likewise, Mahalaxmi Railway Station falls under the Indian Railways and connects a large number of working population daily between Churchgate to Dahanu.

The distance between Monorail’s Sant Ghadge Maharaj Chowk station and Mahalaxmi railway station is close to 600 metres and the obstructions and multiple lanes en route increases the time to traverse the two points. Therefore, having a dedicated walkway will help in not only integrating the different public commuting modes, but also increase passengers to take rail based transport.

The planned foot-over-bridge will be 335 metres long and seven metres in width. It will also have escalators and elevators to provide ease of access for a cross section of population. The most height that will have to be covered will be from the underground metro station to the bridge, hence the necessity to have elevators and escalators.

To get a pedestrian bridge to be constructed, a budget estimate of Rs 63.68 crore has been earmarked by the MMRDA, which has asked for quotations from civil contractors.

“Work will commence in another three months and is expected to be completed in a year, that is, by February 2024,” said an MMRDA official.

Recently, the MMRDA had planned to extend the monorail line up to Mahalaxmi station to integrate and come closer to the Aqua metro line’s underground station. But a revisit to the plans found that installing travelators will be an economical option, which is about one-third of monorail’s cost.