Pedestrians are finding it difficult to use the footpaths on Erukancheri High Road owing to shops encroaching upon the space. With small shops, eateries, and buildings occupying the footpaths, residents of areas such as Vyasarpadi, Moolakadai, and Madhavaram, through which the road runs, are forced to walk on the main carriageway.
Motorcycles, water cans, and shops selling furniture, clothes, utensils, and toys occupy the footpaths of Chennai-Srikakulam Highway, which is another name for the road that starts after the Y-shaped bridge near Vyasarpadi.
“Shopkeepers need to be sensitised to the importance of footpaths and must understand that they will get customers only if there is enough space for pedestrians to walk and for visitors to park vehicles. However, since there are no designated parking spaces in the area, all types of vehicles are parked on the road. If a parking lot is built for heavy vehicles, the congestion might reduce slightly,” said milk dealer S.A. Ponnusamy, who contested from the area in the Assembly election a few years ago.
Damaged fences
Though the Highways Department had barricaded the footpaths with steel fences, the concrete structures and the fences had been completely pulled out of the ground in some places. Sekar, who works at an office in Vyasarpadi, said that during rain, the footpaths were dug up to help the flow of floodwater.
N. Umapathi of C. Kalyanapuram in Vyasarpadi and co-founder of Slum Children-Sports Talent Education and Development Society, a non-governmental organisation working with schoolchildren, said the part of Erukancheri High Road that runs through the Vyasarpadi market area was very narrow. “It is only a small street and has become very narrow over the years, with no footpaths. Pedestrians are forced to walk on the road. Either an alternative route should be designated so that vehicles do not enter the market area, or the road should be widened after sensitising shopkeepers,” he added.
Sources in the Highways Department said encroachments on the road would be removed.
“We keep removing small bunk shops, name boards, abutments, and illegal constructions, among other things from the footpath and roadside, but the encroachments keep coming back,” an official said.
On the suggestion that the road in the market area in Vyasarpadi be widened, another official said it would be studied.
Published – May 23, 2025 12:55 am IST
