Pedestrians get ‘capital’ punishment

VIJAYAWADA: Pedestrians in the city are often pushed into danger as most of the existing footpaths are either occupied by hawkers or by malls and showrooms which allow the vehicles of customers to be parked there. As per police records, over 400 accidents were reported till May in Vijayawada, indicating how dangerous the situation is.Thanks to the influx of people from various parts in the past 12 months ever since the capital city talk gained ground, the number of people on city roads has also gone up tremendously. While the authorities focus on increasing the width of roads and managing the traffic, it is the pedestrians who are going unnoticed. Both the major roads - Bandar Road and Eluru Road - do not have proper footpaths. Hawkers hog the few patches that are to be found here and there. Busy areas like Besant Road, Railway Station Road, Moghalrajpuram and the stretch between Ramavarappadu Ring and Benz Circle have absolutely no trace of a footpath. “They have cordoned off the space between the highway and the service road so that traffic doesn’t clog. Even if it is converted into a footpath, the traffic would not be affected but at least people walking on the roads will benefit big time,” observed T Rajasekhar, a resident of RTC Colony.It isn’t just the pedestrians who are complaining. The issue has got road safety experts worried too. “When the municipal corporation gives permission for the construction of a building, they have to make sure that there is a parking space. But they do not do so and because of this we see vehicles parked on the roads pushing pedestrians into the danger zone,” said road safety expert V Satyanarayana.“Shopping malls and showrooms are following the same trend, allowing their customers to park the vehicles on the roads,” he added. Surprisingly, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) feels footpaths are immaterial. “We come up with a plan to construct a footpath whenever there is a need to do so. We are meeting the requirements of the people,” said VMC chief engineer MA Shukoor. He rubbished claims that hawkers occupy most of these footpaths. “We have teams to remove encroachments from the footpaths and we have successfully managed to keep the footpaths free from any such things,” he asserted.Unfortunately, the city police seem to have turned a blind eye. “As of now, there is nothing official on this drive from our end. The major concentration is on traffic management,” said a police officer on condition of anonymity.