Bagepalli Main Road: If you can drive on this, you can drive anywhere

For a free ride of such a sort, one good option is entering the main road in Bagepalli.

On one side of the road, street vendors have occupied the footpath. On the other side, there are vehicles parked. It is virtually a tight-rope walk for pedestrians have to struggle to remain safe on the narrow footpaths, manouevring themselves between the street-stalls and vehicles.

‘Freedom of movement’

Worse still is the area in front of the Bagepalli Bus Stand. Vehicle-drivers turn any way they please and even wriggle into any little space available to enter. Accidents are just round the corner in the area.

The awnings and boundary walls of shops were demolished recently for the sake of road-widening. The authorities, however, did not bother with the clean-up job. All the material used and even the debris were left outside the shops, by the sides of the roads.

The sand, stones and bricks dumped on the road has only made the air dustier and worsened the condition of the road, which is already covered in potholes and crushed stones.

School, college, even the Taluk Panchayat, banks and government department offices buildings are situated by the side of the main road in Bagepalli. Yet, users hardly care to keep it in good shape.

Haphazard parking by the roadside has created further problems for smooth flow of traffic on the main road. Traffic police staff and officers pay regular visits to the area but the people follow traffic rules no better. There is only an increasing fear of accidents any minute.

Parking on the footpaths

The space reserved for movement of pedestrians seems the favourite haunt of vehicles in Bagepalli. Most vehicles, including the KSRTC buses, prefer parking on the footpaths on the main road.

Private buses, which are forever competing with the state transport buses, even dash onto the footpaths to get a greater number of passengers.

As a last resort, pedestrians are forced to use the roads to walk, as if having an exchange offer with the drivers.

“We are confused about where to walk- the footpaths or the roads,” complain the public.

Traffic rules broken

Citizens also complain that everyone is well aware that traffic rules are ignored, but everyone also prefers to ignore this fact.

“One two-wheeler carries three people. Most people throw traffic rules out of the window. They move anywhere they like, rather than on one side of the road. Stepping onto the roads has become a scary venture for us,” they said. “The Town Municipal Council and the traffic police would do us a great service if they ensured road safety and smooth flow of traffic.”