No footpath for pedestrians as unauthorised squatters rule in Chennai – Times of India

Chennai News
CHENNAI: Almost all footpaths in the city have been rendered useless, used for everything except for walking, but the corporation continues to build more. Experts say enforcement of rules is the key to ensuring they remain free of encroachments, but little is being done in this regard.
In the last five years, crores of rupees spent on laying footpaths in places like MMDA Colony in Arumbakkam, Rattan Bazaar Road, Canal Bank Road in Adyar, Arya Gowda Road in West Mambalam, Anna Nedunsalai in Perungudi and Mylapore have gone down the drain, with some taken over by parked twowheelers, others blocked by street lights and utility boxes and many encroached by hawkers and shops.

The 25 crore pedestrian plaza in Pondy Bazaar has an exclusive footpath, but commuters are forced on to the road.
Ashwathi Dilip of ITDP said vehicles of people in buildings adjacent to footpaths are often parked there for long hours. As are those of shop-keepers in the vicinity. “The on-street parking management system should be extended to all streets with footpaths to ensure parking is organized. The revenue can be used for maintaining footpaths,” she said.

Architects working on Pondy Bazaar-like plazas in North Chennai, Nungambakkam and Mylapore have studied the mistakes made at the city’s first such facility and plan to connect them to the nearest transit location to ensure only pedestrians use them. The design for plazas at MC Road and Khader Nawaz Khan Road focuses on parking. “We will build a parking lot near Anna Park and another near Stanley Road underpass to ensure all shop owners on MC Road park their vehicles and use golf carts or footpaths to enter the road,” said a planner.
After an audit by Citizen Consumer and Civic Action group (CAG) of 11 arterial stretches where footpaths were newly laid footpaths found none was usable, Sumana Narayanan of the group said the civic body came up with a non-motorised transport policy in 2014 and a vending policy in 2018, removing hawkers, beggars and illegally parked vehicles from footpaths remains a struggle. “But if we send out a strict message, we are sure it will reduce encroachments.” CCTV cameras and vigilance officers should be used to enforce rules, she added.
Improper planning and poor infrastructure are also problems. At the Kotturpuram intersection, bustling with students from Anna University and Adyar Cancer Institute patients, there is almost no space to walk on the narrow footpath.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/no-footpath-for-pedestrians-as-unauthorised-squatters-rule-in-chennai/articleshow/86769945.cms