Delhi has over three million people who use the Delhi Metro every day and many more who use a combination of Indian Railway trains and a variety of buses. Mumbai has about seven and a half million people who use the local trains and many more who use buses. Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Raipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow and other cities have their train and bus passengers too.
Across India, commuters and people who use public transport share one common experience—somebody has stolen their pavements! At first, it was just a few feet of the pavement with mats strewn across; now you can see full-on wonders of civil construction on not just pavements but also pedestrian overbridges and underpasses and even in the verge dividing roads. At many places, the road itself has been usurped, and pedestrians as well as all sorts of motor vehicles vie for the same space. I have even seen a sturdy wall with multiple commercial platforms cantilevered on both sides of the wall. The wall was initially built to prevent people from building shops on the pavement it cordoned off.
If people whose pavements have been stolen were a single constituency, they would simply be the largest constituency in India. However, since pedestrians in India come from a class which is always in a hurry to go somewhere or return from somewhere, they simply do not get together as a major motive force. And there is absolutely no civic body, elected or selected representative, or regulatory body, which is in charge of pedestrians. There is no, for example, "National Pedestrian Authority of India" or equivalent.
Pedestrians are on their own, literally and figuratively, and if they die—they don't even become a statistic. Because, and this is the reality—they usually die on roads. So then, they become part of deaths by automobile.
And then we get to where pavements have become parking lots, generating a separate economy, leading to the question: Why road tax? Nobody can answer this question.
Special 'clearance' drives are undertaken now and then, long articles appear in the media quoting our elected and selected representatives, debates for and against becomes very emotive. Automobile manufacturers wonder why sales are down - but are unable to find parking space within their own showrooms for new cars and bikes, which, in turn, occupy more pavement space.
There is no other country of comparable circumstances to India where stealing pavements is such an ongoing art form. Large corporate houses have also got into the game—inspect the bar coded slips being handed out for 'parking charges' and you will spot some of our best and oldest corporates taking part in the game of pavement grabbing.
So how does this actually work?
First big elephant in the room—the actual onsite pavement grabbing, and the bottom of the pyramid guys who actually are visible, such as hawkers, goons, attendants, or similar—are simply not the reason for, and key stakeholders of the pavement stealing game.
The second big elephant in the country—pavement grabbing is among the biggest local industries for a wide variety of sarkari sansthas and their cohorts. In many jurisdictions, the pavement grabbing industry is the most lucrative industry going, because it also includes the narcotics, flesh, gambling and all other really illegal industries.
Let me try to give the example of a typical pavement in a typical Municipal Corporation of Delhi area.
A pavement is usually grabbed and stolen under the kind supervision of the very same authorities who are supposed to ensure it is in good shape and is used by pedestrians. Try to set up a small stall selling anything and see the 'settings' that come into play. There is usually a master controller goon who collects on behalf of all the authorities involved and typically will have his, or often her site, office very close to an ATM and cash deposit machine. Liquidity is all important and so is transfer of funds.
A typical pavement grab will have optimal utilisation 100% of the time, 24x7. Starting from early morning, when the rag-pickers have the first rights pre-dawn, then the cleaning crew who are usually in a hurry to finish before the day's commerce begins, to late evening when the denizens of the night ply their oldest trade. Holidays can see temporary 'haats' and if there is a booze shop nearby, then the kababs become famous, even if the stray dogs and cats start to vanish.
If a concerned citizen tries to file an online complaint to the government of the national capital territory of Delhi about a pavement that has been stolen, using the public grievances portal, it will get bounced around to a variety of authorities including but not limited to the Delhi government, Central Public Works Department, Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Jal Board, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, and sometimes even the office of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. I may have missed out sanitation department, anti-malaria, education and others, for which I am truly sorry. Eventually, an answer will reach the person who made the grievance with the explanation that the pavement in question is and was not in their jurisdiction.
How can the pavement be in anybody's jurisdiction? It has already been stolen.
Aditya G
2 months agoI beg to differ.
I understand that pavements have been abused one way or other -- by people, cars, stalls, even animals (hey, buffalo, we made that pavement for you!).
If one looks around properly, I don't know about other cities, in Chennai, we have BIG pavements which aren't used at all. Some pavements are broken. Some have live eletric wire bang in the middle. I could go on. And in most cases, at least in Chennai, pedestrians walk on the road instead ("hello, there's a big piece of real estate next to you! The road is for cars...not for getting maimed down!!). It's super irritating an super annoying. I don't blame them, because our pavements are just pathetic and doesn't serve their purpose.
Also, I learnt that the cost of constructing a pavement, on a per square feet basis, is more expensive than tarmac and concrete road. It's crazy expensive to maintain it too, because it laid with ceramic and tiles, not some sturdier and stronger material.
I think it's time to do away with the notion of pavements being an integral part of a city and think of other alternatives. As it is, India is overcrowded with little real estate. Cities need to be planned (and redone) for the future, because I'm not sure I see one with people walking around in this kind of pollution and filth, with potholes even on pavements.
Just my two cents.
Meenal Mamdani
2 months agoSo true.
I don't know about the various scenarios described above but they sound plausible.
In South Mumbai, cars are parked on the pavement by the apartment dwellers whose apartment is often adjacent to the pavement. Surely those who can afford to live in these apartments that cost crores and can also afford to own a car, can pay for parking in a parking garage? When asked the apartment owners say that they are helpless as there is no paid parking available within reasonable distance.
THIS IS THE REAL PROBLEM IN SOUTH MUMBAI. NO PAID PARKING AVAILABLE FOR CITIZENS WHO HAVE CARS OR THOSE WHO ARE VISITING SOUTH MUMBAI.
In the last couple of years, BMC has insisted that any multistory building must have parking for each apartment built in the lower part of the multistory tower.
But what about all the others? Why can't the BMC build a multistory parking garage and charge for parking? Some say that Bombaywalas have got used to parking for free on the street and they will never use these structures. Well, let the offending cars be fined heavily or towed away for parking illegally and we will soon have the parking garages full and BMC will get a lucrative revenue stream and pedestrians will get their pavements back.