Pedestrians from various areas of the city said the status of footpaths was unsatisfactory in many pockets and the civic administration should not confine the pavement-repair initiative only to select stretches. Pramod Konde, a regular walker from the Shivajinagar area, said the administration was not consistent in repairing footpaths. He said tiles or paver blocks were broken at many locations, causing obstacles.“The administration launches such drives at regular intervals, but the initiatives generally die down after a few months. Civic authorities must ensure that the latest initiative has some impact. It has been observed that repairs or resurfacing takes a lot of time, especially after footpaths are dug up to lay cables. Encroachment on footpaths is another area of concern,” Konde said.Suraj Kelkar, a resident of Tilak Road, said the civic administration should identify an area on a pilot basis and develop all footpaths there to check the impact. The administration should remove all encroachments, obstacles and illegal hawkers or stalls from footpaths.The PMC officials said drives were conducted against encroachment and illegal hawkers occupying footpath space on a regular basis. An anti-encroachment drive was conducted on Saturday on footpaths along FC Road and roads near Modern College to clear encroachment, one of the officials said.Some residents also claimed that the guidelines of Indian Road Congress were not followed for footpaths along several non-arterial roads in the city.
