For anyone staying in Kalyan Nagar or the adjacent Kammanahalli, the 4th cross in HRBR's 2nd block is the place to hang out. Dotted with a variety of restaurants and pubs - cuisines go from Korean to Arabic, the road flaunts an uber gym, spas and fancy stores. Perfect for traffic to pack in especially towards the evening, pushing pedestrians to grab whatever foothold they can on the edge of the road.
The reasons are all too familiar. Four issues plague pavements on either side of this stretch — poor maintenance with slabs missing or broken, enroachment by vehicles and kiosks, piling garbage and construction activity.
Civic apathy is most apparent when you spot the road signage for 4th cross here. Placed just before a Parisan-themed cafe, it is nearly neck-deep in rubbish. So the best way to spot you are on 4th cross, instead, is to look for hints on addresses posted on hoardings of local businesses.
Yaseer Ahmed studies at a college in the locality and spends much of his free time at establishments in and around the road. He says, "The evenings are lovely these days, and often my friends and I simply want to take a walk down the road before we decide on where we'll have dinner. The one or two times we tried to do so, we had to give up almost immediately. As soon as the group started to walk leisurely, we had to get onto to the road because the footpath ahead was filled with garbage. Still ahead the footpath was too narrow and rest of the space had been taken up by parked vehicles so we had to walk in single file. One place where a commercial complex is being constructed, the footpath was buried under construction material and is damaged.
"On the road you have to constantly watch for the traffic and those sudden speeding motorbikes. As a pedestrian, I am forced to get into a store or eatery, spend money just to have a chat or relax. This is not fair to a pedestrian because as much as people may like to zip about in the cars and bikes, so also I would like to enjoy the city on foot." The corporator A Kodanda Reddy was not contactable.