Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has been neglecting the city’s footpaths even though the Hyderabad High Court has directed it to keep a strict vigil on them. Due to the apathy of the civic authorities, about 90 per cent of the city’s footpaths have been encroached upon by commercial establishments, vendors, government departments, and others.
There are 187 km of footpaths in the city, but not a single stretch has been constructed according to the Indian Road Congress (IRC) guidelines. There is no footpath in the city that could be used by specially-abled persons.
As per IRC guidelines, every walkable footpath should have be at least 3.5 metres wide and just six inches in height. Civic activists and pedestrian safety organisations say Hyderabad can never become a global destination if it ignores 75 per cent of its people who are pedestrians. When the government can spend thousands of crores on flyovers and roads, finding funding for pavements should not be a problem.
As civic activist Kanthimathi Kannan puts it, “The one who walks cannot decide and the ones who decide cannot walk.” She suggests that civic authorities and politicians use public transport to understand the intensity of the problem. Pedestrian crossings and footpaths have been orphaned and nobody wants to own responsibility for them. There is not a walkable footpath in the city, she says, and the elderly are under house arrest because they dare not venture out on what passes for a footpath.
“How can Hyderabad become a global destination when it does not have basic infrastructure like footpaths?” Ms Kanthimathi points out.
For instance, the footpath along Banjara Hills Road No 12, MLA Colony, has been encroached upon by residents in the area.
K. Sandeep Kumar, a resident of MLA Colony, said that it is sad that educated and prominent people in the area have encroached on the footpath “It has become a nightmare for the elderly and children who have to walk on the road escaping speeding vehicles,” he said.
In several parts of the city, walkways have been taken over by street vendors just like the streets have. Around 95 km of footpath in the city have been encroached, forcing pedestrians to walk on the road.
Y. Venkatesh, a student who walks from his Himayathnagar residence to a private college in Narayanguda, says, “I frequently get hit by handles of two-wheelers because I have to walk on the road.”
Vendors, Illegal Ramps gobble up sidewalks
Encroachment of footpath is rampant in Maredpally thanks to the apathy of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials. While vendors have put up chairs on the footpath for their customers to sit on, builders have constructed apartments till the edge of the road, putting pedestrians at the receiving end. With well-laid footpaths, spacious roads and lush green trees, Maredpally was a model colony to live in not so long ago.
Bikes parked on the footpath in Maredpally.
Residents claimed that the authorities have been turning a blind eye to their complaints. The built-up area is extended right up to the edge of the road and consequently footpaths are gobbled up for constructing ramps. Eastern compound wall of Batchu Residency near St. John’s Church is a death trap.
Eateries and commercial establishments, including Best Bakers, Iyenger’s Bakery, Temptation Chats & Ice Creams, Shri Balaji Jagdish Mithai Bhander, Cafe Ramser, Laxmi Plaza, Syndicate Bank, Happy Motors, Axis Bank ATM, Secunderabad Wines, and several other ATMs and medical shops have encroached the road.
Another area of concern is that heavy vehicles that bring goods to mega malls like Reliance Fresh have been damaging roads, which subsequently lie ignored by the civic authorities for months together.
Talking about this, C. Ramesh, joint commissioner of Khairatabad RTA, said that the authority has been collecting additional road tax from heavy vehicles. He said that the RTA has been collecting '51 for every additional 250 kg over the standard tax. North Zone commissioner J. Shankaraiah said that the corporation will remove all encroachments with immediate effect.
Court steps in
January 2015: The court asked the GHMC and the city police to make a public announcement against wrongful use of pavement. While disposing of the plea, the bench directed the GHMC to file a compliance report within two weeks.
Following the HC direction, GHMC has served notices to encroachers. However, demolition drive is yet to start.
June 22, 2015: While hearing a petition on June the High Court asked whether GHMC officials were hand-in-glove with encroachers.
About 140 enroachments were removed in Tolichowki, Kukatpally, Nampally, Darusallam, Uppal and LB Nagar.
December 2017: Expressing displeasure at GHMC’s failure to prevent encroachment on pavements, the High Court directed the municipal commissioner to take steps.
Complying with an earlier direction, commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy appeared before the HC which was dealing with a PIL filed by local resident
January 23, 2018: A division bench of the High Court appointed a judicial officer to inspect the busy Siddiambar Bazaar and Mahabubgunj areas and file a detailed report by February 20.
