Construction materials for commercial buildings lying on pavements in Jayanagar are forcing pedestrians to walk on the roads. Also, ongoing footpath construction on many roads adds to the plight of common man.
By Vivek Kumar M
“It is difficult to walk on footpaths. Firstly, the footpaths aren’t constructed properly and on several roads construction work is going on. When a building is being built, the footpaths are occupied by construction materials. What’s more, sometimes they keep materials on roads as well,” says Manjunath, a resident of the area.
Many places in Jayanagar where the construction work is going on, construction material including steel rods, cement, gravel and other debris are dumped on footpaths and roads. In some places, even the temporary sheds are built on footpaths.
Bruhat Bengaluru MahanagaraPalike (BBMP) building bye-laws state that permission for using public space to store construction material should be taken by paying ground rent at the time of approval of building plan. The construction material should not obstruct vehicles and pedestrians.
Auto drivers who take the same route in Jayanagar complain of lack of parking space. Madhu, an auto driver in the area, said, “If some construction material is dumped on the road and parking place is not available, we have no other choice but to park the vehicle next to the dumped materials.”
Construction debri lying on the footpath
Guidelines of Indian National Building Code (NBC) say that stacking of construction materials should be done in such a way that it does not come in way of pedestrians, vendors, cyclists and vehicle riders.
Jayanna, a traffic police officer, said, “If any complaint about construction material obstructing the movement of public or any vehicles is received, action is taken. Fine is imposed on the builders for such act.” The India Penal Code says that the fine is up to Rs. 200.
Sameer, an urban planner from Centre for Urban and Rural Infrastructure Planning Enterprises (CURIPe), said, “In case of building construction, public space can’t be used to store construction materials. But for construction in small sites, they have no other option but to use footpaths or road. If they are not permitted to use roads, they’ll have no access to bring the material into their sites. But they should not store the materials on roads as long as they want.”
Prasanna Kumar, Assistant Executive Engineer under BBMP, said, “While they submit plan for construction of building, ground rent of 0.09 per cent of the guidance value is collected from the builders allowing them to use needed public space.”
He further said that the builders are expected to make arrangements for storing material after completion of certain part of work. In case any damage is caused to footpaths or roads due to dumping of construction materials, fine is collected from the offender and the amount is used to restore the public space.
On several roads, footpath construction work is pending and the cement bricks used to build the footpaths are stored on roads.
Sameer said, “If any work related to road or footpath construction is going on, government can use the space to store construction material.”
