Infra agencies need to clean up after themselves

Debris dumped on side of road. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

The stretch of road where the Kurla BEST bus accident occurred has been narrowed down due to debris dumped and illegal parking on one side of the street. Work on building redevelopment along with widening of the road along the stretch has been going on after setbacks from the nearby buildings. There are a lot of debris and illegal vehicles, according to a local.

Another has stated that the road has been narrow, littered with hawkers, slums and illegal parking. Vehicles have become bigger while roads have become narrower. If it had been a wider road, there would have been space for pedestrians to get away from the approaching bus was another opinion.

There has to be a concerted effort to clear roads of development and infra debris. While redevelopment booms all over the city, we do at times witness piles of debris as a result of all the so-called development eating up roads. This debris may not just be from construction of buildings but just infrastructure work. It takes inordinately long to be cleared at times.

We are not even going into encroached pavements as this edit space has often highlighted pavements that are eaten up by structures, hawkers and whatever else transpires, everything except walking, on our pavements. Our pedestrians can barely place their feet on these pavements, or have to gingerly hop over obstacles.

Obstructions like double-parking are common and this is both by private and public transport vehicles. All this is compounded at high-density footfall areas like just outside stations, etc.

Clearing this, bringing a semblance of order is also part of the accident prevention package. There has to be at least some space for people to move, in case of approaching, out-of-control vehicles. While that may seem an extreme scenario, the accident shows that it is necessary and just sometimes, can prove the difference between life and death.