Pedestrians pushed off their space on Dr Natesan Road

DTNext visited the stretch on Dr Natesan Road at the Mylapore end (City Centre junction to Avvai Shanmugam Road, after a reader called in, after citing the report, ‘Commuters take a stand on crowded Bells Road’, published on October 31. The reader said the entire stretch was lost to parked vehicles. On reaching the spot, it turned out to be true. Two-wheelers and cars were parked on and around the pavements, leaving pedestrians with no room to walk. 

Pedestrians say that there is nothing left of the stretch. “The cars here stand in a line occupying any space to even reach the footpath. People are left with no option but to walk on the road. We have to drop our children to school in the morning and we are unable to use the footpath and have to walk on the road instead,” says R Kavipriya, a homemaker, adding that residents have seen people consuming alcohol there as the parked cars act as a convenient cover. 

S Ramini, a resident says, “Encroachment is a major problem here. There are several shops and eateries on the pavement itself, many of which are open till late in the night. Customers end up parking on the road, causing great inconvenience to the residents.” 

Being a residential area, the stretches are perennially busy. “There are several residential houses here and many of the residents own cars. However, they do not have a parking within the premises and they end up parking on the road. Some businessmen who have their establishments on the stretch also leave their vehicles that are used for commercial purposes, on the road,” says Amritha V, a resident of Avvai Shanmugam Road. “There are some people who try to save parking fee by leaving their vehicles here,” she adds. 

Residents want the encroachments to be removed soon. “Often people park their vehicles carelessly or even leave the car unattended to do shopping. This brings the traffic to halt as there is no place to move,” says another resident.