Missing footpaths irk pedestrians across city

Taking a walk at least once a day is the panacea to problems, physical or mental. How does one do that in Pune though? Either they head out to the ever-diminishing parks or stroll down the footpath — which, by far, is the most convenient option. But, then is it?

Citizens can barely rein in their anger over the miserable state of footpaths and littered open spaces lying in disrepair — all enough to make walks around the town extremely unpleasant.

Neeta Lalwani goes for a brisk 30-minute walk every morning before starting her busy day as an entrepreneur. She takes rounds within her housing society since the newly built Cloud 9 slope outside on the NIBM Road has no footpaths. “There are steep slopes with no footpaths throughout Kondhwa. It is dangerous for vehicles, but more so for pedestrians who may get hit trying to navigate the slope.”

Displeased, 68-year-old Lalwani says even where there are footpaths, they are occupied by hawkers and vendors, leaving no space to walk. Alternatively, people walk on the roads and deal with oncoming traffic.

Citizens have to brave their way through hawkers and heavy oncoming traffic on stretches such as Salunke Vihar Road, near Khalsa Dairy and Biodiversity Udyan on Vimannagar, and some parts of Hingne towards Swargate.

While the Pune Municipal Corporation ( PMC ) often carries out anti-encroachment drives on such stretches, citizens say it is not a sustainable or permanent solution but a game of hide-and-seek between officials and the hawkers.

Neelam Shukla, a resident of Vimannagar, says, “Citizens may be irked with hawkers when they have difficulty walking through congested spaces, but they themselves crowd around vendors and buy from them. Anti-encroachment drives are redundant and relocating hawkers is definitely not a feasible option because they will keep coming back.

We may need to have footpaths that can accommodate both, hawkers and pedestrians.”
In busy areas where there are proper footpaths, pedestrians are piqued by motorists hijacking the space to get ahead during peak hours.

Mohammed Arif, a resident of Camp, says, “I get angry seeing riders using footpaths to get ahead. They also honk at the pedestrians to get out of the way. I have had several arguments with such riders, but have never seen any traffic police take action against them.”

Programme director at Parisar Ranjit Gadgil, who is member of a committee to help PMC develop and manage non-motorised facilities like footpaths and walkways, says, “In 2018, Bombay high court ruled that having roads and footpaths in reasonably good condition is the fundamental right of a citizen.

The non-motorised committee, which also includes architect and urban planner Pranjali Deshpande, as well as civic activist and convenor of Pedestri ans First Prashant Inamdar, pushes for implementation of the Urban Street Design Guidelines but is given no heed. We are not making any headway. Development by PMC is focused on providing more road space to accommodate the increasing number of vehicles.”

Gadgil said, “Footpaths should go beyond comfort and convenience, it should be pleasurable for citizens to walk to bus stops or nearby parks. It is the job of urban planners who design footpaths to accommodate hawkers, foot traffic and facilities for pedestrians in the planning stage itself.”

Pedestrians do not feel included in the development, which usually revolves around making more space for vehicular traffic, but PMC officials say things will change.

“Our priority is pedestrians. We are working to make the city walkable and safe for everyone — including the blind and differently abled citizens,” said Aniruddha Pawaskar, head of the road department at PMC.

“All authorities have been doing is giving false promises, the Pedestrian Policy was released in 2016, but is hardly implemented anywhere in the city,” said citizen Suraj More.