Hydraulic bollards set up at Charminar

Charminar: With the installation of Hydraulic bollards to prevent vehicles and hawkers getting too close to the historic Charminar, the Charminar Pedestrian Project (CPP) reaches another level towards making it successful. These bollards which have become the talk of the town were installed about 50-feet towards Gulzar Houz in its first phase, while on other sections it would be completed in next two to three months.

Almost two decades after the CPP was floated, the project has reached to a point where the authorities have taken a serious note in the recent years and steps like no-hawker zone and areas prohibiting vehicular movement were taken up. The CPP aims to beautify the Charminar area, which is estimated to cost around Rs 35 crore.

As part of this project, earlier, the GHMC had constructed cement bollards across the Charminar, but this failed to work out due to the solid construction preventing even authorized entry of vehicles. The bollards which were permanently fixed only allowed pedestrian movement, that proved to be problematic during an emergency. "Observing the possibility of emergency situation, we have decided to come up with the Hydraulic Bollards, which were installed now on one side. Soon this Hydraulic Bollards will be installed in all the three remaining sides of Charminar," said T Sai Sharan, Assistant Engineer of the Project.

According to Md Musharraf Ali Faruqui, Special Project Director (CPP), in his recent tweet stated that this Electric Bollards are being installed at Charminar to demarcate pedestrian zone and restrict vehicular movement and to give freeway to ambulances, fire engines and other emergency vehicles.

Speaking to The Hans India, Sai Sharan said that after the successful installation of Hydraulic Bollards at Gulzar Houz, soon the next phase of the project will be taken up at Mecca Masjid's side, later at Lad Bazar and in the last phase at Sadar Mahal side.

Technical Process

There are about 20 Bollards, out of which seven are Hydraulic and the remaining are fixed. The Hydraulic mechanism works with a remote control. As part of working mechanism, a box with its machine has been set up close to it. In case of an emergency it can also be operated with the help of equipment like a 'hand-pump' which is known as a 'manual system', Sai Sharan explained.

Explaining about these bollards, Mohammed Jawaduddin, Service Engineer of Project said that the Hydraulic Bollards allows only pedestrians to pass. Even a normal bike can't pass through. This bollard protrudes and goes down in 6-7 seconds of time, he added.

During its testing, the engineers found that Hydraulic Bollards are strong enough to bear the weight of a 6.8 tonne vehicle. The entire tests and the installation were completed. For the safety purpose, a 'Loop sensor' is also installed. "When the bollard is in motion and a vehicle passes by, it automatically goes down for the safety of the vehicle and bollard. If the bollard reaches its maximum length, then it should be operated with remote controlled mechanism or manually", explained K Khushal, Project engineer.