Chennai: The problem of encroached footpath at Luz Church Road has been a recurring problem for many years now as pedestrians repeatedly rue the lack of space for then to walk freely.
The footpath at the busy street is encroached with either two-wheelers parked illegally or with street vendors setting up stalls causing pedestrians to walk on the road in which lot of vehicles ply, especially at peak hours.
Speaking about this problem, Sivaraman, who lives in the street says, “This is one of the busiest stretch in the locality which houses lot of showrooms, hospitals and also apartments. Since lot of people visit the showrooms and hospitals here they use the space on the pavement to park their two-wheelers and cars are also parked on the roadside. This totally takes away the walking space and it becomes very difficult for pedestraisn like me. Since a goo d number of vehicles pass through the road at all times, it is posing a big inconvenience to senior citizens.”
He complains that a hospital at this stretch has officially converted the footpath into its parking space and says that despite repeated complaints to the authorities, no action has been taken to stop the vehicles being parked there.
With cars being parked in this stretch some feel that this also sometimes causes traffic hassles in the street. “Without any parking space for the retail showrooms, people leave their cars on the roadside despite this being a no-parking zone. The road is also not too wide and this causes traffic hassles during busy time,” says Shyamala, another resident.
“I visit the stores here regularly and always parking has been a big problem here. Some of the shops here too has converted the footpaths into parking space. It is posing a real challenge for people across ages to walk through this stretch without the fear of getting hit by the vehicles. Strictly penalty has to be levied on those who break the rules and immediate actuion is required to bring about a solution to this problem,” she adds.