Corporation consults residents on footpath redesign project

The residents of Besant Nagar had protested the Corporation’s move to widen the footpath, keeping in line with its Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) policy. To discuss the proposal with the residents to explain that the works would be beneficial to the public, the Corporation convened a meeting with the representatives of various resident welfare associations on Monday morning. 

Kamakshi Subramanyan, co-founder of Sparc, a civic activist group based in Besant Nagar, said the residents had a bad experience with the relaying of footpath in the Second Avenue Road, where the expanded pavement has been taken over by street vendors. “We stopped the work on the pavements in Besant Avenue on March 31 until the Corporation discussed it with us,” she said. 

At the meeting, the residents firmly opposed the plan to widen the pavements by an additional 3 meters. “What is the point if the Corporation increases the pavement size and the vendors encroach upon it? We want tiles to be a part of the footpath, and barricades like bollards put in there to ensure that the pedestrian space is not used up by two-wheelers and four-wheelers. The footpath should start from the property line and the trees shouldn’t be cut,” added Kamakshi. The project is being taken up under the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Fund initiative where footpaths of 23 roads in the city will be redesigned at a cost of Rs 22 crores. In Besant Nagar, Besant Avenue and 3rd Avenue would witness a footpath redesign. Other streets where work has started include Balfour Road, Harleys Road, Ormes Road, Kasturba Nagar 3rd Cross Street and Anna Nagar First Avenue. 

A senior Corporation official said that the idea of expanding the footpath was to discourage usage of vehicles on the street, as per the NMT Policy. “The footpaths will be laid according to Indian Roads Congress standards, with feedback from Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, considering pedestrian uses and traffic inputs. The footpath design will integrate trees, provide tree grating and bollards, add railings wherever possible and include ramps to provide accessibility for the differently-abled. Under the NMT Policy, footpath-design works have been done in 56 km of the city’s roads,” said the official.