Footpaths pose a challenge

Footpaths pose a challenge
BY CHANDRASHEKAR G
BENGALURU







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For the physically challenged Hutchins Road is a nightmare. Mr S.T. Venkatesh, who is physically challenged and uses a tricycle to get around, finds the road impossible to negotiate most of the time.

A student of an institute run by the Association of People with Disability (APD) in the area, Mr Venkatesh is doing an Advanced Diploma in Computer Application.

Other students like him studying at the institute have an equally harrowing time on the road, which is filled with potholes and sees speeding traffic most days.

“Walking on Hutchins Road is a Herculean task even for able people due to the lack of a footpath here and poor maintenance of the road. The BBMP should have been sympathetic at least to the physically challenged who use it everyday,” says Mr Venkatesh.

He points out that students of the institute need to go round to the nearby shops to buy stationery and they find going down Hutchins Road an uphill task. Those who use crutches find it more difficult in the absence of a footpath, he says.

“The BBMP has not provided a footpath here although it knows there is an institution for physically challenged in the area,” he regrets.

According to him most physically challenged students don’t dare venture out due to the unevenness of the road.

“Its condition deteriorates further as it progresses, making is next to impossible for challenged people to negotiate it,” he rues.

Indiscriminate parking of autorickshaws and other private vehicles has further narrowed the road, he adds.

Indiscriminate dumping of garbage is another problem here. Repeated complaints to the authorities have not helped. APD sometimes pays to have the garbage cleared.

A BBMP engineer says tenders have been invited for filling potholes and asphalting the road. Dumping of garbage will be stopped, assure BBMP officials.