Using a footpath in some parts of the city often is akin to negotiating a labyrinth. Avoid the vehicles parked on spaces meant for pedestrians, and then one ends up facing a tree. Traverse it, and there is a possibility of running into a lamppost.
“To ensure free movement for pedestria0ns, footpaths need to be obstruction free,” concedes Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Additional Commissioner (Electrical) Badru Maloth.
He assures that the corporation will take up a special drive to address the problem of streetlights on footpaths and ensure lampposts do not cause hindrance to pedestrians.
“We are aware of the need to move them to a side and clear the passage for walkers,” he says.
Since APCPDCL lights too were there, necessary measures will be taken in coordination with the department. “There are sites where trees too have to be relocated and we are coordinating with our bio-diversity wing,” he avers.
There are an estimated 2,51,055 poles of APCPDCL and another 63,136 poles maintained by GHMC in the city. An ideal solution, Mr. Maloth points out, is to put the cables underground so that the need of poles on the sidewalks gets addressed.
He also reveals that the exercise to clear the hanging cables on the footpaths has already commenced on different stretches.
