Vijayawada: Footpaths usurped, pedestrians at risk

Vijayawada: Pedestrians in Vijayawada city are perpetually at risk of being run down by a passing vehicle.

People are forced to walk on the road, and not footpaths, for the very simple reason that there is no space on footpaths for them to walk on.

Whatever footpaths that had been built have been encroached upon, not only by commercial establishments, but also by government offices. There are quite a few government offices in the city that have extended their boundary walls onto the footpaths.

While shopkeepers occupying footpaths and treating them as their own property is a problem that plagues the entire nation, in Vijayawada, even public servants have done this, while the civic body remains a mute spectator.

Footpaths that have not been encroached are unusable for many of the citizens, especially the elderly, as they are too high to climb on. At places like Labbipet, the low height of the footpath is perfect for vehicle owners to park their cars.

Traders on the Mahatma Gandhi Road (Bandar road) and Karl Marx Road (Eluru road) use the footpaths to instal signboards, owners of furniture shops use them as an extension of their display area and other traders use them as their godowns.

Footpaths are also perfect for roadside vendors, especially tea sellers. Footpaths are handy for the electricity department too to instal transformers.  

Unfortunately, citizens have become so used to seeing footpaths used for every purpose other than the one they are built for — pedestrians to walk on —  that people have becoming habituated to walking on the road.

While some shopping complexes occupied footpaths and some have also constructed permanent structures on them on the Bandar Road, others include them in their staircases.

Shockingly, staff of a jewellery showroom are often seen telling people to get off the footpath, as if it is part of the shop.

District Senior Citizen Welfare Association president Motukuri Venkateswara Rao said, “It’s very difficult for citizens, especially the elderly, to walk on the roads. While the city is earning a name globally, facilities are not being developed for its population.”

In-charge traffic DCP S.V. Madhava Reddy said a majority of the deaths of pedestrians in accidents is due to the fact that the victims had been walking on the road at the time of the mishap. He said that the police department is always ready to provide security to the civic body staff to clear encroachments on footpaths, roads and drains.

Vijayawada municipal commissioner V. Prasanna Venkatesh stated that they are putting together an enforcement team to clear the encroachments on the roads and the drive will begin soon.

He said that they would first give written notices to shopkeepers occupying the road and then start taking action.