The road is for anything with wheels. The footpath is for pedestrians. And that is the universal traffic law. But even law abiding Bangaloreans have no option left but to take to the road, because there are no footpaths. Take the classic case of the damaged and unattended footpath opposite the office of the Divisional Railway Manager. Just like many other roads in the city, this particular stretch commonly witnesses pedestrians taking the road to walk through because the BBMP has not yet taken up damage control of the footpath nor have they attended to other necessary civic and sewage works on this particular area.
Open drains, piled up garbage, overflowing sewage, stone blocks and many others have been causing immense inconvenience to
pedestrians. And when there is heavy traffic, the pedestrians have no option but risk walking on the road.
The rains have made it worse for them.
“It is almost one month. The concerned authority has not done anything. I expect police to direct the BBMP officials to
take up the work immediately,’’ said Somshekar, a pedestrian who regularly takes this stretch to work and back.
“How can we walk over open drains. Many pedestrians have fallen into the drains here. BBMP should take immediate measures
and make public friendly footpaths immediately,” said Kiran, a commuter. “As the footpath is completely damaged, we cannot
question jaywalkers. Unless proper footpaths are provided, we cannot stop pedestrians from walking on the roads. We
do not book cases against pedestrians as the space that is provided for them is not fit to be walked on,” said traffic police
inspectors on the Railway station road. T Gopalakrishna,
Councillor of Gandhinagar was not available for comments.