A pedestrian walking through 5th Cross Street in Shastri Nagar, an upscale neighbourhood in south Chennai, would find the going hard. Out of 20 buildings TNM surveyed, 10 had ramps encroaching on the pavement, and eight had cars parked on them. Debris was found dumped in three places, and in two spots, residents had set up gardens which blocked pedestrian movement.
Most pavement encroachments in the city are from illegal parking of vehicles and pushcarts, dumped debris and buildings with ramps jutting into streets. For the pushcarts and small vendors, outrage and action are plenty. But for encroachments by builders and vehicles in the upscale neighbourhoods, outrage or even awareness is almost nil.
M Radhika, the local corporation councillor, however, said the issue is not serious in his ward. “We can't say that people are not obeying our directions on pavement encroachments. In some instances, people do even remove the ramps they built if we ask them to do so,” she said.
Obstructed pavements and parked vehicles force pedestrians onto the roads where they have to confront oncoming traffic. “I was out walking with my mother as I usually do. Vehicles take up the walkways, so we walk on the edges of the roads. An auto hit me on my shoulders and sped away,” says Mohan, a resident of Abhiramapuram, a centrally located neighborhood in Chennai.
Chennai is known for a high number of pedestrian deaths. In 2019, pedestrian deaths were 11% of the total accident deaths in 2019. In 2023, it spiked to 43% as per the Road Accidents Report 2023 published by the Institute for Transport Development (ITDP).
The combined share of non-motorised transport (NMT) and walking in Chennai fell from 40 per cent in 1984 to 28 per cent in 2023, says a 2023 World Bank report on Chennai’s urban mobility transportation. Only around 41 percent of Chennai residents use personal motorised vehicles. The remaining 59% still depend on public transport options.
All these modes require some amount of walking to connect people. Lack of pavements and related pedestrian infrastructure is a headache that a majority of Chennai’s population has to deal with on a daily basis.
“Even if I am walking on the pavement, because there are cracks or missing slabs or vehicles on the pavement, I have to get down on the road. It is not just safe,” says Sneha, a morning commuter who uses walking as a primary mode of commute.
Vidya Mohankumar, urban designer and founder of Urban Design Collective, says we've not even prioritised the road infrastructure for the public. “Pedestrians reaching a bus stop or a bus terminus have to walk a certain distance. The first walk, the trip that you take from your residence, is always a walk trip, and then you transfer to another vehicle. It could be a car, it could be a bus, or it could be a metro or a train, or whatever. So, we could have at least started by prioritising public transport, but we didn't do that either. Which is why pedestrians are left out of the discourse,” says Vidya.
The Indian Roads Congress (IRC) is responsible for laying down design and engineering standards for road and highway construction in the country. Walking Zones, as per IRC guidelines, need a minimum width of 1.8 m and a height of 2.2 m, They should also be clear of all obstructions. No utility ducts, utility poles, electric, water or telecom boxes, trees or signage should be placed within the Walking Zone.
For commercial areas, this width is set at 2.5 metres. But across the city, the pavements are now taken over for parking by private vehicles. In residential areas, potted plants, house extensions and private vehicles all swallow the pavement, pushing out the pedestrians.
“I'm in Adyar, a core area of Chennai. If I want to go to, say, Tambaram or Koyambedu bus stand or Kilambakkam bus stand, I have to catch a bus. To go to the bus stop, I have to use my wheelchair. There are missing slabs and open drains, sometimes the pavement is uneven. The ramps to get onto the pavement are often too steep. There are no guardrails, and the pavement is often too narrow,” says Gnana Bharathi, founder of the Spinal Injured Persons’ Association (SIPA).
He says the engineers and contractors building the roads never take disabled pavement users into consideration.
David Manohar, a civic activist dealing with issues of encroachment of public spaces, says rules are flouted even at the building stage. “Encroachment is like thievery. I rob someone's rights to public space. If someone takes away money from me, I will call him a thief or a robber,” says David.
Crores have been spent by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) over the years to improve the city’s road infrastructure, but they have so far failed to address the woes faced by pedestrians. The city launched the Complete streets project in 2020 in partnership with the World Bank with an allocation of Rs 100 crore. However, only 11 km of pavements have been built under the project.
In December 2021, the GCC Council approved the improvement and repair of footpaths in Royapuram (zone V), Anna Nagar (zone VIII), Teynampet (zone IX), Kodambakkam (zone X), and Adyar (zone XIII). The project, estimated at ₹5.97 crore, focuses on enhancing pedestrian infrastructure along key roads in these zones.
In the 2025 budget, the GCC had set aside Rs 200 crore to rebuild 200 km long footpaths.
Venugopal, programme manager for ITDP India says making the streets safer for pedestrians deserve a lot more attention in terms of administrative concern and funding
“If we don’t prioritise pavements, a day will come when the city’s congestion cannot be cured by any number of flyovers or tunnels,” says Vengugopal.
Whenever countries have managed to provide reliable options for public transport, residents consistently choose them. “Even in Cambodia or Bhutan, whose economic GDP is not as much as India’s, when you provide high-quality public transportation and high-quality streets, everyone loves it,” he says.
This report was republished from The News Minute as part of The News Minute-Newslaundry alliance. Read about our partnership here and become a subscriber here.
Our Sena project tracks how elites take over public spaces in urban India, and the price that’s paid by you. Click here to contribute.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
