BMC intensifies drive to restore city footpaths

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to provide safe and smooth passage to pedestrians, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has intensified its drive to restore and revive the footpaths along important stretches of the city.
Several such stretches have been identified, including the Jaydev Vihar Nandankanan Road, the road between Fire Station Square and Airport Square, Sachivalaya Marg, Patel Marg and the road between CRP Square and Power House Square among others.
The civic body, which has already resurfaced the footpaths along these stretches and painted them green as a mark of identification for the users, mainly pedestrians, is now in the process of putting brick barricades of low heights around to safeguard them.
Officials said the objective of putting the brick barricades around is to protect these footpaths from rampant encroachment. Currently, almost all the footpaths and parallel cycle tracks have been encroached upon by vehicles of different kinds.
The footpaths and cycle tracks also face encroachment issues from roadside vendors. “We are putting up brick barricades to protect the footpaths and give safe passage to the pedestrians,” BMC mayor Sulochana Das said.
She said stretches are being identified and almost all of them with footpaths will have the same provision. The work is going on in a phased manner and in the first phase, all the important stretches of the city will have the brick barricades, Das said.
Pedestrian concentration is mostly on roads like Janpath, Jaydev Vihar Nandankanan Road where several commercial establishments are located. Subsequently, the number of parked vehicles and vendors are also more on the footpaths of these stretches.
“It is tough to walk on the footpaths not only because of the encroachment but of the fast-moving traffic as well. Some of the bikers even ride on the footpaths. Hope the barricade plans works,” Vikram Agrawal, a resident of Damana, said.