Footpaths across the coastal town, particularly in important thoroughfares, have shrunk in width over the years thanks to rampant encroachments by shops and business establishments leaving pedestrians jostling for space with street vendors, cars and two-wheelers on the roads.
A visit to several important thoroughfares brought to fore the utter chaos and bewildering scenario with pedestrians having no opportunity to complain due to lack of action by authorities concerned while the traders on the other hand exercise absolute freedom to go ahead with their activities like dumping their wares or diesel generators or mobile advertisement boards on the pavements leaving no space for pedestrians.
While in some places like Jawaharlal Nehru Street and Mahatma Gandhi Road, the existing pavements had been rendered useless, in several others there are no footpaths to begin with.
An official from the Local Administration Department said, “We have been taking up enforcement drives from time to time to clear encroachments on arterial roads. The Department conducted one such drive recently. It’s an ongoing process. We clear encroachments but they reappear after some months later. We will intensify the drives.”
Although the government is implementing the Smart City project, the magnitude of its impact on the city remains to be seen.
P. Devanathan of People’s Pulse, a civil society group pointed out that extension of pavements by business establishments including government departments has become the order of the day. Enforcers of the law should not be encroachers, he said.
He recalled that the pavements on Nehru Street were flanked by iron grills in the 1980s. The street had regulated space for walking and parking. But over the years, the authorities removed it and there is nothing left of it now.
“There have been several instances of government buildings encroaching over the pavements on several arterial roads. People’s Pulse has taken up the issue with the authorities concerned, who have assured that the extensions on platforms will be removed soon,” he said. Though the shops are rented out by the local bodies, the shopkeepers and business establishments have extended their shops on to the road completely occupying them.
The authorities seem to be completely oblivious to the rampant encroachment of footpaths across the town, say residents.
M. Gowri, an entrepreneur, said, “Footpaths are meant for the movement of pedestrians. The construction of stalls or extension by shops is not legally permissible. This doesn’t leave any space for people. As a result, residents routinely face a problem walking on the roads.”
According to the guidelines of Indian Road Congress, roads with pedestrian traffic are supposed to have a footpath with a minimum width of 1.5 metres.
