Pedestrians’ right-of-way on footpaths

The Supreme Court directive to all states and union territories to frame guidelines to ensure proper footpaths for pedestrians resonated with growing public concern over the lack of proper footpaths that compel them to walk on roads. The SC has set a two-month deadline for states and UTs to come up with their guidelines. Wider consultation with pedestrians can help the governments formulate a pragmatic guideline that will make provision of easily accessible and disabled-friendly footpaths along all public roads. The Division Bench of the apex court comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan recognising the right of pedestrians to use footpaths guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution is also a clear message to states and UTs that there must not be any ambiguity in framing a pedestrian-friendly guideline. This also puts the states and UTs on notice that lack of a proper footpath can be construed as denial of the constitutional right. For cities like Guwahati, ensuring obstruction-free footpaths is not limited to removing unauthorised encroachment by street vendors but also shops along the roadside encroaching it for displaying their goods. A major obstruction faced by pedestrians on Guwahati roads is the construction of concrete household campus ramps on footpaths at the entrance. This happens due to the raising of the plinth area much higher than the road surface. When such obstruction repeats in front of several houses and buildings along the footpath, the pedestrian finds it difficult to use and prefers to walk on the road, which increases his accident risk from vehicle hits. In low-lying areas of the city, this is a common sight, with campus height raised much above the road by undertaking excess earth filling to prevent waterlogging inside the compound. With the Guwahati Municipal Corporation and Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority not enforcing the maximum plinth height in different localities, building owners resort to raising the plinth level at their whims and fancies. As a result, the ramp at the gate in some areas even crosses the footpath and extends to the carriageway of the roads. The blame for such rampant raising of plinth area also goes to GMC and the Public Works Department, which started unplanned raising of the road and footpath height, which resulted in rainwater from raised roads and by-lanes entering and submerging compounds of old houses and buildings for days on end. With the problem remaining unaddressed and the authorities turning a deaf ear to pleas by city residents not to raise by-lane and footpath height, the building owners started raising the plinth area while undertaking reconstruction. For plots sold to builders for developing multi-storeyed apartments, raising the plinth area much above the road and footpath height has now become rampant. The raising of plinth area also adversely affects neighbours with old houses and with plinth marginally above the road. A high boundary wall constructed on the raised compound also obstructs sunlight to a neighbour’s house with a lower plinth level, but there is no clarity in building bylaws to address these issues. A retrofitting solution to the problem caused by unregulated raising of plinth level could be lowering the ramp height at the entrance of the building compound so that it remains at the same level as the footpath and does not obstruct pedestrian movement. The guideline to be framed for ensuring the proper footpath is comprehensive and addressing these issues will be critical to compliance with the SC directive. Legal clarity will be needed for enforcement of such specific provisions in the guideline with incorporation of clear regulation of plinth height and ramp at building entrance not crossing the footpath in building construction byelaws. Water pipelines to households crossing over footpaths have become another menace and cause serious obstruction for pedestrians, and guidelines incorporating specific directives to authorities concerned to develop necessary provisions and structural designs in the construction of the footpath to address the problem have become an urgent necessity. A comprehensive survey of residential, commercial and government buildings, both old and new, will help the authorities to make necessary amendments in building construction byelaws and explore retrofitting solutions to simultaneously address the issues of pedestrians’ safety and waterlogging in different areas to fix area-specific plinth height. Enforcement of building byelaws and the guidelines to be framed will be crucial to achieve the desired objectives. Excluding the footpath space from dedicated zones for street vending is equally important to ensure that pedestrian movement is free from all obstruction. The SC directive has provided the states and UTs an opportunity to clear the mess in cities and towns and make pedestrian safety an integral part of urban planning. Roping in experts from various fields to convert the suggestions from pedestrians and other stakeholders into realistic solutions will go a long way in framing a comprehensive guideline on footpaths to ensure that the pedestrians get their right of way.