PWD approves FOB for troops after HT's report

Foot overbridge across Ring Road

- Snehil Sinha

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government's Public Works Department (PWD) on Wednesday granted in-principle approval for the construction of a long-pending foot overbridge (FOB) across Ring Road near the Rajputana Rifles headquarters in Dhaula Kuan, officials aware of the agency's plan said.

PWD officials said the department's subway committee will visit the site on Thursday to finalise the FOB's alignment. The precise location is expected to be locked in within a week. A project estimate of ₹2.59 crore has been prepared, the officials said.

The decision comes two days after Hindustan Times published a report highlighting how thousands of soldiers of Rajputana Rifles, the oldest rifle regiment of the Indian Army, located in Delhi Cantonment, negotiate a smelly culvert that overflows during rains on their way to the parade ground due to the absence of a safe crossing. They do this four times a day - twice before breakfast and twice after dusk - even as the Delhi government has failed to build a foot overbridge.