Footpath work in Vidyanagar comes to a standstill after tussle between activist, residents

A tussle between residents and an activist has brought the footpath work in Vidyanagar area of Tingrenagar to a standstill. The road is now a dangerous stretch as

A tussle between residents and an activist has brought the footpath work in Vidyanagar area of Tingrenagar to a standstill. The road is now a dangerous stretch as it is dug on its sides with open trenches towards Pragati garden.

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Samairah, a resident of Vidyanagar and an activist working with Safe Road Foundation, said, “I came to live in this area five years ago and there were no footpaths in our area. After intervention, the local ward office, along with the elected members agreed to build footpaths, but some residents are opposing the move as they use the area to park their vehicles.”

The said road is the connecting road for Dhanori and is almost nine metres wide, but they have encroached the roads and use both sides as parking space for their cars, creating blind spots at the turning, according to Samairah.

Sunil More, a resident of Vidyanagar, said, “The road here is small and when two vehicles use the road together, it creates a traffic jam. So, can you build a footpath here? It will only cause inconvenience to the residents.”

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to build the footpath on the road and hence, residents raised an objection.

MLA Sunil Tingre said, “The footpath is being built for the benefit of the people living in Vidyanagar, but if the residents oppose the footpath, I won’t be able to complete the work.”

“Since the width of the said road is a little under nine metres, we are building a footpath which can be in part paver blocks which are at ground level and in some areas around three inches in height,” said Tingre.

According to the design rules roads, there should be one side parking and one side footpath for roads which are nine metres and below. This is done to avoid blind spot besides parking on corners of roads is risky. Also, why is the MLA building ground level paver blocks, questioned Samairah.