The Hindu 14.02.2010
Oppanakara Street to have new pavements
Special Correspondent
COIMBATORE: Oppanakara Street, the shopping area in the city with a high volume of traffic, will soon have new pavements for pedestrians at a cost of Rs.75 lakh.
At present, the road is a nightmare for pedestrians. Wherever the pavement is visible, it is used as parking space for two-wheelers and sometimes even cars.
Pointing this out, Chairman of Coimbatore Corporation’s South Zone P. Pynthamil said the new pavements would be at least half foot above the road level so that vehicles could not get on to these. Mr. Pari and Town Planning Committee Chairman P. Krishnamoorthy took part in a ‘bhoomi puja’ to mark the launch of the pavement works.
The Corporation already announced that this road was among many thoroughfares, including Avanashi Road, which would have new pavements for pedestrians.
The pavements on either side of Oppanakara Street would be more than eight feet wide, over a stretch of 1.6 km from Shobha Corner to Mill Road. At some places, pavements were not visible at all now, suggesting that these were laid at least a decade ago. “Now, apart from raising the height of the pavements, we may propose barricades on the pavements’ border with the road. Only pedestrians can get on to the pavements at some access points,” Mr. Pari said.
The pavements were expected to reduce risk of accidents for pedestrians on this road that had heavy bus traffic. All the buses from Ukkadam had to take this road. Some took a turn into Raja Street, some into Variety Hall Road and the other took a left or a right at the Mill Road Junction. During festival times, there was heavy pedestrian movement for shopping.
With pavements not available to the pedestrians, they walked on the road and ran the risk of getting hit by the vehicles.
