The New Indian Express 07.10.2010
City roads do not have a proper sidewalk
KOCHI: A walk through city streets negotiating broken and obstacle-ridden pavements has become a pedestrian’s nightmare. Most of the city roads do not have a proper sidewalk and walking on the broken and unsteady slabs could prove disastrous. You will have to be extra careful or else you will end up in the drain. The Corporation-maintained roads are the worst among the lot. Most of the main roads in the city centre like the High Court-Edappally Road (Banerji Road), Chittoor Road, SA Road and important byroads (bus routes) like Paramara Road, St Benedict Road, Old Thevara Road, Church Landing Road and bylanes connecting MG Road and Chittoor Road like Nettipadam Road, Sadanam Road and many other roads come under the jurisdiction of the Corporation. The slabs covering the drains on all the above mentioned roads are non-usable.The Corporation has started the work of the footpath on High Court-Edappally Road using a part of the
` 20-crore JNNURM project. But the suffering of pedestrians and merchants in the area has only increased with the commencement of the work. Silt and old slabs are strewn all over the footpath leaving not much space for people to walk.
The plight of merchants in Kaloor is no better. The Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi, Kaloor, general secretary K A Mohammadali said, rubbles and slabs have been lying here for more than 15 days and it is affecting the business.
KSUDP project manager P G Girijadevi said, “We have removed most of the silt and rubbles and the rest will be cleared soon. As for the slabs, they are reusable.”
Corporation engineer M K Sasheendran said, “The councillors are supposed to maintain the drains in each division. But the lack of funds is a problem.” This view is debatable as the division fund and a portion of the People’s Plan fund can be used for the purpose.
PWD roads like Shanmugham Road, Subash Chandra Bose Road and MG Road too have unusable walkways. PWD assistant executive engineer K M Ashraf said, “The work of repairing the slabs on MG Road is progressing. The proposal to repair other roads has already been sent.”
