The new footpaths in Abhiramapuram have caught the ire of its residents. They say the height and width of the redesigned pavements have considerably reduced the road space and made it difficult for vehicles to leave the house.
For instance, the granite pavement outside Sumitra Niranjan’s house in Ananda Road is so high that she struggles to park or take the vehicle out. It does not even allow rainwater to percolate. “Granite is impervious. What is the point of laying pavements with it?” she asks.
The trees along her house are chocked with cement. “I have sufficient harvesting pits inside my house for the water to drain, but what about water from roadside or apartments that do not have such a facility.”
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Opposite her house, drains are chocked with debris from pavement work.
The roads in Abhiramapuram are used by hundreds of motorists to travel from C.P. Ramaswamy Road to T.T.K. Road as well as for vehicles coming from Adyar Gate junction. The locality has a good mix of residential and commercial buildings and many vehicles can be seen parked outside. Residents feel the ongoing work at Ananda Road and Ashoka Road will only worsen the traffic bottlenecks.
Some even picked up an argument with the contractor. The stretches do not need pavements, but more parking spaces, they say.
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“Already, a transformer, post box and junction box take up half of the footpath space. Increasing the width will only lead to more encroachments,” says E. Muralidharan, area coordinator of 123 Division. He says two-feet-wide pavement is sufficient and will allow for more parking area.
Prasad Yadav, an architect, says concrete footpaths are more people-friendly. “Footpaths need to be engineered and technically designed. For instance, in front of the gates, they should slope in,” says this resident of Ashoka Road.
According to a Corporation official from the zone, as per the new guidelines pavements in interior roads should be 2.3 feet wide and 150 mm in height. “Pavements must slope at the entrances and irregularities can be brought to the notice of the zonal office,” said the official.