Poor facilities for pedestrians in Ggm: Oppn alleges corruption, irregularities

Gurugram: In 2018, out of 481 deaths that were caused due to road accidents in Gurugram, 168 of them were pedestrians. With a special focus on ensuring the safety of people who do not use their vehicles, the Haryana government had launched the Haryana vision zero programs in 2017.

One of the key points raised in this program were to improve the state of foot overbridges (FOB'S) and footpaths especially in cities like Gurugram that has a high vehicular density. Three years after the launch of the program, the situation has not changed much for the safety of the pedestrians. According to official data, only 25 percent of the road network in Gurugram have footpaths.

There are a total of ten foot over bridges in the city mostly along the Delhi-Jaipur highway. Many of them are not being used by pedestrians as most of them are facing poor maintenance and incomplete construction. With the poor facilities for pedestrians prevailing the opposition parties have jumped in to claim that there is massive corruption and irregularities in the public agencies in Gurugram towards creating facilities for pedestrians in the city. It is important to note that despite several deadlines being set, the facilities of foot over bridges have not begun at the busy routes of Mahaveer Chowk and Khandsa Chowk in Old Gurugram.

"Every skywalk bridge in Gurugram built under the ruling government has a similar tory of delay, neglect, corruption and bad design that is in turn endangering the lives of the users. Many remain not in use due to the wrong site or being unfinished but many have been shown completely on papers with funds pilferage," said Ashish Dua of the Indian National Congress.

As the chorus of graft prevalent in the public agencies in Gurugram gathers steam, Anil Vij, who is the Urban Local Bodies Minister has ordered a special audit of the accounts of Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG). MCG is mostly responsible for developing and maintaining the footpaths in the city. Even as there has been a large scale campaign by the MCG in removing the encroachments on the city pavements, residents have often highlighted that encroachment at pavement is a regular sight in the city.