Encroachers deny walkers right to use footpath

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on August 4, 2011:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/encroachers-deny-walkers-right-to-use-footpath/300710.html

CHENNAI: Of all the class of citizens in the fast-growing metropolis of Chennai, it is the pedestrians who have been neglected the most. Why else would a city, with pavements stretching for 1,000 km along its roads, have such a high accident ratio for pedestrians? (Results of a study released by Transparent Chennai, a research wing of the Centre for Development Finance, IFMR, indicates that 33 per cent of accident victims in Chennai were pedestrians or bicyclists.) 

Of the nearly 1,000-km length pavements in the city, maintained by the Chennai Corporation and State Highways, pedestrians are unable to use over 80 per cent of the facilities as hawkers and commercial establishments occupy the area illegally.

Furthermore, several footpaths across the city’s commercial areas have been unofficially converted into impromptu parking lots.

“Influential residential and commercial complexes across the city convert their footpaths to make way for cars and other vehicles knowing that it is meant only for pedestrians,” said R Natarajan, a research scholar and an RTI activist.

“Despite my repeated pleas to the Chennai Corporation officials about the conversion near Adyar Gate in RA Puram for the past several months, no action has been taken yet against the commercial complex which has converted the footpath into its private parking space,” added Natarajan.

“Not only in RA Puram, such violations have taken place in commercial areas like T Nagar, Mylapore, Adyar, Parrys Corner, Purasawalkam and Anna Nagar where footpaths solely belong to the nearby commercial establishments or platform hawkers.  Pedestrians are forced to walk on the road leaving their safety to the will of  the speeding vehicles,” he explained.

With the civic body’s rules and acts under the Madras City Municipal Corporation Act 1919 to stop the menace, the Corporation is unable to take any punitive action on those who encroach footpaths.

According to civic body sources, with its power prescribed under the MCMC Act, the maximum action that can be taken on such violators by the Corporation is mere eviction from the particular spot or confiscation of goods.

Besides, the civic body can serve a notice on such encroachers and if at all the case reaches the final stage, it would end up with a paltry sum of Rs 50 or  Rs 100 as fine collection from them.

If the same continues unabated, someday the pedestrians will have to walk on the road, letting commercial establishments and hawkers use the footpaths, warned Natarajan.

The World Bank had mentioned in one of its reports that in developing cities across the world, pedestrians make up over one-thirds of the modal share of all modes of transport. The ratio holds good for Chennai as well, according to a Transparent Chennai report.

Projects drawn up for sustainable transport in the city only talk about flyovers, bridges and private modes of transport, sparing little or no thought for pedestrians who make up for one-thirds of the city’s 47 lakh population on the move. Footpaths continue to shrink to make way for vehicular traffic, though norms clearly lay down that pavements should be at least 1.5 metres wide in residential streets and a minimum of three metres wide on major roads with commercial activities.  Is it becoming a victim of market economy?