Whether you are a pedestrian or a vehicle-owner, roads in Chandigarh pose a life-threatening risk. The silt on the road may upset the balance of your vehicle and injure you, or you may hit a pedestrian who has to walk on the road as footpaths have disappeared. It is, therefore, not surprising that every third person killed in a road accident in the city is someone who uses his feet for locomotion, says Prabhjot Singh

City roads: A hazardrous journey

CHANDIGARH is fast tuning into a nightmare for pedestrians. Wide roads and huge roundabouts notwithstanding, the city’s lack of footpaths and walkways is responsible for a plethora of problems for both the pedestrians and vehicle-owners.

For example, a school teacher received multiple injuries when the two- wheeler she was driving skidded on the silt-coated road near the intersection of Sectors 20, 21, 33 and 34. This is not the only intersection where silt poses serious problems to drivers of two-wheeler. A large number of roads and intersections in the city get covered with silt every time it rains. The source of this silt is scrapped road berms.

Hundreds of workers of both the Municipal Corporation and the Engineering Department of the Chandigarh Administration are deployed the year round to clear the kerb channels of unwanted growth. Besides, the scrapping of a few feet of berm on either side of the road is also undertaken. This removal of grass from the berms is directly responsible for the growing problem of silting of roads and intersections.

Initially, the berms were cleared to about four feet. Now it has come down to a foot. And this one-foot area has streetlight poles. At times, this space for pedestrians also remains dug up for telephone cable repair work. Along the Madhya Marg, wherever the Administration has provided slip roads, the mandatory four feet distance from the built up area, too, has been given a go by. At a couple of places, the slip roads just scrape past built - up areas thus exposing road- users to great risks.

Besides, the silt is choking stormwater gulleys and hindering the quick disposal of storm water into the underground system.

Two decades ago, almost the entire city had concrete footpaths and walkways. At that time prefabricated tiles were used for footpaths and walkways. Gradually, these tiles started finding their way into the houses of influential government employees for the paving of backyards and courtyards, besides car park areas.

The paving of footpaths and walkways has been discontinued because some engineers says that architects and town planners do not approve of paved footpaths and walkways. Others hold the shortage of funds responsible for it.

One of the major fallouts of this has been the multifold increase in road accidents from unauthorised road punctures, including those near busy roundabouts. For example, traffic to Sector 20-D generally enters the sector by traversing the pedestrian area. Similarly, a number of two-wheeler owners on Sector 20-A jump onto the road dividing Sectors 20 and 21 from unauthorised road punctures. Their movement is facilitated by the absence of paved footpaths and walkways. The situation is no different in other parts of the city.

A number of town planners, retired architects and engineers feel that no town can afford to do without footpaths and walkways. Everywhere, including fund-starved municipalities in Punjab and Haryana, civic authorities have been concentrating on providing paved footpaths not only to facilitate the movement of pedestrians but also to check unauthorised use of roads and berms by encroachers.

Informed sources claim that the Department of Architecture is now considering a proposal to provide paved footpaths in one of the sectors on an experimental basis. Once public acceptability has been ascertained, the experiment would be extended to other sectors also, they say.

Another problem has been of shopping areas where the Administration has provided huge plazas. But in the absence of any maintenance and upkeep, these plazas, including the one in Sector 17 shopping centre, have become encroachers’ paradise. In other parts of the Sector, say 17-A and 17-B, the plazas are in a shambles. The same is the case with the rest of the Sector. At most places, tiles have been removed, stairs are broken and huge piles of debris, building material and garbage have accumulated.

When contacted, the Chief Engineer, R. K. Jain, said that the practice of paving footpaths with precast tiles is continuing. In fact, estimates are being prepared to fill the gaps, if any, with these tiles.

In some areas, new precast tiles with Municipal Corporation markings have also been used. But these are only in select shopping areas.

The situation is worse in southern areas. Some of those who bought booths or shop-cum-office sites and constructed their buildings, are facing a series of problems. There are no access roads, no parking areas and even the supply of electricity to them is through temporary wooden poles.

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