Encroachment: Broken earthern pots and other materials covered in a tarpaulin obstructing the pathway on Magadi Road in Bengaluru on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN
If Bengaluru’s roads belong to the vehicles, its foopaths seem to belong to everyone but the pedestrians. From dangling cable wires and piles of construction debris to discarded furniture, garbage and parked vehicles, footpaths provide space for almost everything except those who walk. As roads get choked, vehicles too spill onto the whatever is left of the pavements.Walking even 100 metres without interruption is hard in almost every area in Bengaluru. A common pattern emerges across neighbourhoods -- a neatly laid footpath suddenly ends at an open trench dug up for civic works. A few steps later come a heap of sand or broken paving blocks. Further ahead, a motorcycle parked across the pavement or a mound of garbage would leave pedestrians with little choice but to step onto the road.
A damaged bollard lies on a footpath on Kasturba road in Bengaluru on July 03, 2026.
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