Dug up footpaths spell danger

Dug up footpaths spell danger
Monday June 4 2007 10:48 IST

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BANGALORE: The civic agencies may be initiating drives to prune trees and decongest the storm water drains ahead of the monsoons, but footpaths in the city seem to be out of their purview.

In most parts of the City, footpaths have been dug up supposedly for maintenance, but the work moves at a snail’s pace.

With the monsoon round the corner, the piles of construction debris dumped in numerous places will get washed onto the road, posing a threat to the travellers.

There have been many instances of two wheelers getting skidded due to piles of un cleared debris. Road repairs that BBMP undertakes pose another great threat to motorists and pedestrians.

Pedestrians hardly have space to walk on the footpaths on Magadi Road and those between Race Course Road and Raj Bhavan Road.

As a matter of fact most city roads have clear footpaths which senior citizens and children can use without danger. If it is not squatters it is the people living nearby who empty their waste baskets on the footpaths.

In Johnson Market and Koramangala, where the BBMP had cleared the footpaths for road widening a month ago, no progress has been made till date.

Only the piles of construction debris seem to be growing by the day.

Rohit K, a commuter, says, “We have complained to the traffic department and the civic agency about the indiscriminate dumping of dirt on the road but nobody cares. It is risky to ride at night and many two-wheeler riders have had accidents because of this,” he said.

Anandita M, another commuter, felt that footpaths are being dug up for no apparent reason, especially when the civic infrastructure in the city was going from bad to worse.

“On many of the footpaths under repair, the workers disappear after a couple of days, leaving the place unattended. This force the travellers to use the motor-way,” she said.