VANISHING FOOTPATHS

Even as the state government's one-month deadline to Pune Municipal Corporation to put footpaths in order is over,a Newsline team comes across tattered and brazenly encroached footpaths across the city. The civic administration,on its part,is found dishing out lame excuses.

Even as the state government’s one-month deadline to Pune Municipal Corporation to put footpaths in order is over,a Newsline team comes across tattered and brazenly encroached footpaths across the city. The civic administration,on its part,is found dishing out lame excuses.

Footpaths in Kondhwa and Bibvewadi are either in the grip of encroachers or are in bad shape. Though,some of the footpaths have undergone repair work,most are still home to small shops,temporary handcarts and food joints.

Bibwewadi ward officer Madhav Deshpande said,Foothpath work in these areas are in various stages of completion. Residents,however,complain that there are no footpaths at many places and the existing ones are in bad shape. There is no footpath on the road leading to Salunkhe Vihar road and the footpath on the roads leading to Super Mall are encroached by hawkers, said P B Basu,a resident of NIBM Road.

While the main NIBM Road has a footpath,one cannot walk on it as it is not properly maintained. The footpath has become a garbage dump of sorts, said Neela Joshi,a resident of the area. Wanowrie area too hardly has any footpaths which are walkable, said Shirin Bathena from the area.

Members of both NIBM Residents Forum and the Wanowrie Citizen’s Forum have taken up the issue of footpaths several times with their corporators and only last week they included it in their charter of demands. In our charter of demands,footpath is one of the major demands which the newly-elected corporators need to resolve, said YK Gupta,joint secretary of NIBM Residents Forum.

The scene is no different in Bibvewadi area. The existing footpaths have several encroachments.

Deshpande,however,said there are nearly 17 shops on the footpath and they claim to be there for the past 15 years. Unless an alternative space is given to them we cannot pull down these shops, he said.

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Shops and handcarts on footpaths are common sight in the area and the civic officials are in the process of removing temporary encroachments.

The Bibvewadi ward office includes panels 61,62,63,70 and 72. The length of the footpaths in the area is as follows: Panel 61 7.79 km,Panel 62 2.33 km,Panel 63 2.12 km,Panel 70 2.56 km and Panel 72 7.35 km. This is as per the new panel system as the earlier footpaths fell in wards 120,123,127,128,139,140 and 97. Most of the work is over but we would only be able complete the work in a month’s time, officials said.

There are several areas in the panel where the work is yet to commence. The main areas include Sendkar Heights,Papal vasti,ABC Farms,near telephone exchange,Canara Bank and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Chowk,Bibwewadi Road.

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