Prodded into action by the Apex Court, the Urban Development Department has directed all Municipal Corporation to earmark 1 per cent of civic budget for rolling out safety measures for pedestrians. Along with it, State also directed Corporations to conduct safety audit about status of footpaths within six months and submit a comprehensive plan for their upgradation to the State Government. The action came post Supreme Court (SC) directives to State Government during hearing a writ petition filed by S Rajasikaran V Centre asking for dedicated measures aimed at enhancing safety of pedestrians.

 

Post Court's directive, a meeting was chaired by Chief Secretary on November 6 at Mumbai that chalked out the measures that are needed to be taken for enhancing safety of the pedestrians in urban centres. The 1 per cent amount from civic budget is to be utilised for creating awareness among citizens about observing rules and discipline the road users. The Corporations have been told to establish Accessibility and Pedestrian Cell for co-ordinated and focussed approach on footpaths and other related issues.

 

Third Party Audit: The Municipal Corporations have been asked to go for third party audit, especially making note of status of footpaths in market area, near schools, railway station and other crowded areas. The note from UDD to Municipal Corporations also directed them to set up a online mechanism wherein citizens can lodged complaints about status of footpaths.

 

Moreover a fixed time period of 15-days is laid down for the corporations to rectify the defects and in case of delay senior officers should take note and seek explanation of delay from the filed officials. The UDD also laid emphasis on adherence to sec 210-D for Motor Vehicles Rules road designs, construction and other norms. Not only that, a dedicated pathway is to be earmarked for non-motorised transport, including rickshaw and bi-cycle and especially pedestrians in cities as per sec 138 (1A) of MVA . Removal of Encroachments: For the safety of pedestrians, all crossing should have zebra markings, signages, street lights and walk signals at all squares and they should be designed as per IRC and MoHUA Harmonised guidelines. Stress should also be laid on removal of encroachments from footpaths for which a plan should be put in place for keeping them free of hurdles.