Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Wanted: roads safe to walk

K.V. Prasad

`Lack of foresight has delayed a key infrastructure in a growing city'

RUSHING ACROSS: The zebra crossing at the Gandhipuram Junction is the only spot in the city where people can cross a road safely. - PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

COIMBATORE: An elderly couple struggles to reach a textile shop from across the Cross Cut Road. Heavy traffic around 5.30 p.m. holds up the young and the old on either side of the road for a good 10 minutes. This problem is not restricted to Cross Cut Road.

Across the city, people find roads unsafe to walk, worse, unsafe to cross. Even as the Coimbatore Corporation prepares a project for subways at busy points, the public feel that lack of foresight has delayed a key infrastructure in a growing city.

No road has a pavement intact end-to-end. Most of the time, pedestrians have to walk on the road and run the risk of being hit by vehicles. And, if they have to cross, it has to be a blind dart across the road or a harrowing wait. Barring the Gandhipuram Junction, no other busy point has a zebra crossing.

Subways needed

The four-way junction at the eastern end of 100 Feet Road, a similar one near Cross Cut Road and those at Ramanathapuram and R.S.Puram need subways as people struggle to cross these points, especially from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The next danger zone for pedestrians is in front of the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, where the ailing are uncertain whether they can cross the Tiruchi Road and reach the hospital for treatment.

A few metres away, passengers struggle to cross the Bank Road to reach the railway junction. Subways are needed here also.

The Corporation's projects include the ones for these areas. But a widespread opinion is that it should not have taken this long for the civic body to initiate projects for such basic an infrastructure as a subway.

Heavy traffic

Heavy traffic on narrow roads that have no pavements poses the worst risk for pedestrians. Structures that remotely resemble pavements such as the ones on Telugu Brahmin Street are never fully available for pedestrians. Vendors spread their wares on the pavements. If not them, cycles or motorcycles are parked on whatever piece of concrete is available. The result: pedestrians are forced back to the roads.

This is a consequence of lack of long-term planning, says Coimbatore Consumer Cause secretary K. Kathirmathiyon. "The civic body has been focussing only on short-term and fire-fighting measures. Temporary measures will not help. Subways have never been thought of for many years despite the early indications of growth."

There has to be better focus now, Mr. Kathirmathiyon says. The project for the subways should be implemented at least now, what with Central Governments funds having been assured. The Corporation should also ensure that footpaths are provided along all its roads, he says.

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