Dearth of pavements creates chaos at Ashok Pillar

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Ever wondered why you always have to put up with slow moving traffic on the stretch of 100 feet road near Ashok Pillar? It doesn’t make sense: the road has one-way traffic, and is among the widest in the city (100 feet wide!) Yet, vehicles move at a ridiculously slow pace starting from the Corporation park right up to BSNL office, thanks to the hundreds of pedestrians walking on the road.

At any given time, a mass of commuters stands on the road waiting for the bus near Ashok Pillar and pedestrians unpredictably dart into share autos in the middle of the road, bringing vehicles behind to a screeching, honking halt.

At first glance, you can see wide pavements on both sides of the road, but a closer look reveals there are no pavement alongside the Corporation park, leaving people no choice but to step sideways, with their backs against the grimy yellow Metro Rail barricades to get past.

The pavement resumes after around a 100 metres, and is maintained by the two big restaurants on the stretch.

But it seems like only the restaurants’ clients are welcome to use the pavement, which gives way to ramps and a car park. The next stretch of footpath has broken concrete slabs that can stub your toe.

Across the tenth avenue road, the footpath has an open electricity box and foul smelling puddles of urine visible all around.

Here, everybody keeps a safe distance from the stink and the overflowing garbage dumpster, by walking on the road itself.

A row of small shops come next, but the pavement is unnegotiable as it is taken over by a florist’s shed, a tiny bunker selling paan and cigarettes and parked vehicles.

A little further, attempts to climb back onto the pavement are thwarted by heaps of sand and gravel dumped for construction work.

Iron grills and old wooden doors are hawked still further down the pavement. Opposite the BSNL office, it is filled with neat rows of secondhand motorbikes ‘for sale’ and customers casually lean forward to examine them while placing themselves in the path of oncoming traffic, leaving no doubt why its so hard to get through this otherwise wide road.