Indiranagar residents have enough reasons to complain

Indiranagar residents have enough reasons to complain

Deepika Arwind

‘There is a skywalk but pedestrians do not use it’

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

ENCROACHED: Cars parked on the footpath of Indiranagar 100 ft road in Bangalore.

Bangalore: It seems that the once content residents of 100-ft road in Indiranagar have enough reasons to complain in the wake of Saturday’s accident near the Doopanahalli bus-stop, where three senior citizens and a worker were killed, while another person was injured.

Towards one end of 100-ft Road, which leads to the Koramangala flyover, close to the spot of the accident, a number of issues have been troubling those using the road frequently.

“It was difficult to cross the road after the flyover was built so a skywalk was built, but it is covered with hoardings,” says Maya Manjunath, a resident of Domlur. Apart from being visual pollution, she says, no one ever uses it. “People don’t want to climb up and down two flights of stairs, especially when the skywalk looks so claustrophobic,” she says.

“Traffic from the flyover, from the right turn after the skywalk, and pedestrians crossing the road have made that junction chaotic,” adds Ms. Manjunath. People, who stay off the 100 ft Road in areas such as Defence Colony, say that after the sudden commercialisation of the road, there is no space to walk. “Take a look at the showrooms — their parking spaces have taken up half of the pavement,” says Jadadish R., a retired army officer.

“We used to walk the length of 100 ft road to buy groceries, but now we drive because there is hardly any place to walk on the pavement,” he adds. Even though some retail outlets have maintained a certain amount of pavement space, there are others who have not.

Many signs saying “No Parking” are violated blatantly by vehicle-owners.

“Some of the parking signs are removed because owners and staff members of the stores have to park their cars somewhere,” says another resident who lives on 100 ft road.

The bus shelters which never seemed to cause any problems are also seen as encroaching pavement space given the situation.

“Of course, the other end of 100 ft road, towards Old Madras Road, is closed because of the Metro construction, so pedestrians and vehicles do not even venture towards that side,” says Mr. Jagadish complaining about what he says was a peaceful, accident-free zone.