Hyderabad: The footpaths in Hyderabad are being constructed without following the regulations for the Indian Roads Congress (IRC), according to experts. An ideal footpath should be around 150 mm, where as in Hyderabad, one can find footpaths even with a height of 600mm as well in Begumpet. Road experts say that many footpaths in the city are constructed unscientifically.
Though only 20 per cent of the city roads have footpaths, they are also not laid in a well-planned manner by the concerned authorities. M. Adishankar, secretary for Roadkraft, an NGO, has been taking videos regarding the road safety for the past two years. He recently released a video where he was measuring the height of the footpath in Begumpet, which is way more taller than the ideal footpath length. There were also steps provided to climb the footpath.
Mr Mohan Krishna, a Begumpet resident said, “There are many problems with the existing footpaths, apart from the height of the footpaths, there are many issues like, uneven planes, trees obstructing the path and others. Infact, the city footpaths are actually getting better and on an increase, after the Metro arrived there came many new footpaths. These footpaths are better than the rest of the footpaths in the city.”
Mr Adi Shankar, with two years of rigorous observation said, “The footpaths in the city are not strategically constructed, and there are issues like encroachments by vendors, not having a ramp to get down, the height of the footpath and many more.
GHMC officials were not available for comment despite many attempts to by this newspaper.
