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Pune traffic police allowing footpaths to serve as parking bays?
While residents blame police for going soft on violators, DCP traffic claims action is being taken.
Harcharanjit Butalia, a resident of Wagholi, has to battle his way through the traffic-heavy Ahmednagar road as the footpath has been encroached either by residents who have parked their vehicles or by the local vendors.
“Is footpath not meant for people to walk?”,Butalia asked.
According to the residents, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) under the new Street design Programme has given a facelift to the pedestrian walkway and turned them into wide walking spaces only to become parking lots for many of the vehicles in the vicinity and the traffic police is not doing much.
Tejaswini Satpute, DCP traffic Pune, however, said that joint action is being taken by the police and PMC against illegal parking on footpaths.
At many places in Baner, Aundh and Pashan, the wider footpaths are being used for parking two-wheelers and leaving no space for the pedestrians. Similarly, the footpath from Kalpataru society to Westend Mall has become a parking lot with people visiting the mall parking on the footpath to avoid paying the parking fee at the mall and this makes the residents wonder if the traffic police is going soft on vehicular parking on footpaths.
On Fergusson College road, the newly-constructed footpath from the main gate of the college to Tukaram Paduka chowk has become a preferred place for parking of two-wheelers and four-wheelers. A no-parking board placed there makes liitle impact on the riders.
On Jungli Maharaj (JM) road, from Sambhaji garden to R Deccan stretch,many vehicles were parked at the no parking zone. PMC along with traffic police have earmarked ‘no halt zones’ at specific points on JM Road, but, that has only added to vehicles being blantantly parked on the footpath to avoid the no-parking and no-halt zones along the road.
“The smart street design which was initiated by PMC to encourage non-motorised and public transport infrastructure. There is lot of work to be done still and we are progressing slowly,” Aniruddha Pawaskar, executive engineer and head, roads department, PMC.
The residents, however, dont seem impressed with the idea of widened footpaths as they are turned into parking lots.
“If footpaths are being widened in Smart city plan then where is the parking place on the roads?,” questioned Sunita Choudhari, a resident of Aundh.
Ravindra Sinha, a resident of Baner-Pashan link road said that PMC and the police should first handle the mushrooming encroachments that springs up on the newly-made footpath. “ The model Smart footpath of Parihar chowk, Aundh road, is full of encroachments. Driving on footpaths, parking on footpaths and the encroachments leave no choice for the pedestrians but to walk on road. This is one of the reasons for the many road accidents involving pedestrians,” he said.
“We are scared to send children and elderly on the roads because there is no space for pedestrians,” said Sheila Christian, member and co-founder, National Society for Clean Cities (NSCC). “These pavements were made at a big cost by PMC in Kalyani Nagar but they are completely encroached and pedestrians are forced to walk on the road. Now they have added a toilet right where people are supposed to walk? What kind of planning is this?”
Even areas like Hadapsar are facing double-parking and encroachments on the footpath. According to Vaibhav Mane Patil, resident of Hadapsar, “Most of the footpaths become a private parking space for vehicles and on weekends, the illegal carts take over the space thus leaving pedestrians no choice but to walk on busy roads.”
While residents and activists are blaming the PMC and the police for the inaction, Satpute said that fine amount has been collected from 2,845 vehicles.
“In the last three months, we have collected ₹45,17,000 lakh as fine from 2,845 vehicles, which were parked on the footpath or had violated the rules. Jammer action rate has increased from 200 per day to 800 per day. Increasing the fine amount collected is not our target. We need to create awareness among people to refrain them from parking on footpaths and that is our aim,” she said.
