At the onset the disposition of the footpaths at KBAR road, Austin Town has nothing distinctive about it. One can easily use the dismissive tag,’ no big deal’. Nevertheless, keeping with the focus of our column, ‘ Vanishing Footpath ‘ we decided to shift from the macro approach to take a closer look.
KBAR road, which connects the Old Race Course road with the Neelasandra market place, surprisingly has well laid out foot paths, unlike some of the other footpaths in the city, which were dented and bended at the most unexpected, inopportune spots.
KBAR road is home to the Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Temple. Flower sellers encroach the entire stretch, leaving no space for the pedestrians.
Eateries like the Biryani Junction have encroached the footpaths. Also, Motherland Garage, has converted the footpath into a work station.
As the road gets closer to the junction which connects to the Neelasandra market area, on the right is the Jasama Mandir. The footpath in front of it are occupied by dust covered cars and a tempo. People in the shops opposite to it said, “ As far as we can remember those vehicles have been here for a long time.”
Shanthi a resident of this road said, “The footpaths here are actually well laid out and in a good condition..But what to do? Some of the shop keepers take up the footpath, for their personal use. We cannot go and fight with them, only the councillor can do something about it.” When City Express got in touch with the corporator of the area Sarala, as usual she was not available for comments.