Laying footpath on busy roads brings relief to pedestrians

Hyderabad: In a huge relief to the pedestrians, Hyderabad Road Development Corporation Limited (HRDC) began laying a stretch of 11.3 km footpath of width 6 ft at several areas of the North Zone.  Meanwhile,the Vigilance and Disaster Management which is part of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is on full pace demolishing the encroached spaces on the roadside in the city providing calculated space for the HRDC to construct footpaths. 

However, the street vendors are in a dilemma on whether GHMC will provide space for them or not. The project is to be completed with the allocated fund of Rs 19 crore. The HRDC works include laying footpath and also to extend the width of road from two line road to a three line road. “The works of laying foot path is already in progress covering 11.3 km in areas including Ramakrishnapuram, Trimulgherry, ECIL, Neredmet, Moulali,” said M Narsingam, Executive Engineer, HRDC. He further said that there was also a plan to increase the width of the road and form three-line road. Simultaneously, the uneven and irregular roads will be brought to one level for a smooth travelling of the motorists.

With the construction of footpaths, the distressed street vendors are living in ambiguity, though the GHMC officials are planning to allocate green zone for the street vendors. “The GHMC has started inspections to mark green zones for the street vendors to continue with their business and the list will be finalised soon. As of now, we have instructed them to shift their stalls from the main road to the inside lanes,” said D Ganesh, Assistant City Planner, Town Planning Department, Kapra Municipality.

On similar lines, B Narasing Rao, Assistant City Planner, GHMC, Malkajgiri, said, “No street vendors can occupy the footpaths after the construction. At present very few vendors like those who sell fruits and flowers were seen occupying a portion of the main road. We will instruct them to move inside as the entire road stretch comes under Red Zone where no permanent stalls can be established.” “Ever since the stalls were moved from the main road there was an adverse effect on customer’s footfall. We expect that GHMC would allocate us the right place to carry out our business,” said K Kamaraju, a plastic products vendor, Moula Ali.

BY Sushma Nagaraju