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.
| Photo Credit:
ALLEN EGENUSE J.
Incidentally, like the previous year year, Bengaluru topped the list of pedestrian deaths among mega cities in India in 2024 as well in the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2024. However, the number of pedestrian deaths came down from 292 in 2023 to 246 in 2024.
Disappearing walkways
Chethana, a Class 12 student who travels every day by bus from Palace Guttahalli, says walking the last mile is a hazard. As she walks towards Dollars Colony through Ashwath Nagar, she points to one such stretch where the footpath gradually narrowed before disappearing altogether. Beyond that, ongoing construction had taken over almost the entire walkway.
What blocks footpaths changes from place to place. In some areas, particularly on many ward roads, overflowing garbage occupies the pavement, in some others, tree branches or construction material. In several residential neighbourhoods, homeowners have also extended compound walls or installed outward-projecting gates and grills to accommodate parked cars.
There appears to be no standard design either. On several roads, the footpath changes height every few metres, pushing pedestrians to climb down and climb back repeatedly, while in some places like Mysuru Road, Banasawadi, Tumakuru Road, there is a footpath on one side of the road but none on the other.
An elderly pedestrian walking on a footpath encroached upon by vendors on Uttarahalli Road in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit:
K. MURALI KUMAR
Nightmare for people with special needs, senior citizens
The city’s footpaths are particularly unforgiving for persons with disabilities or those old and infirm.
Near Victoria Hospital, Ravi, a visually-challenged man, chose to walk in the middle of the road instead of using the pavement while heading towards K.R. Market to catch a bus. “Many footpaths are too high, and each one is a different height. I am always worried that I will fall while trying to climb onto them. The footpath ends within a few metres. I have to climb down and deal with a different obstacle every time. It is easier to stay on the road than keep getting on and off the footpath,” Mr. Ravi said.
Residents said repeated civic work has only made things worse. “After laying water pipelines or underground drainage, they leave heaps of mud and sand outside our homes and on the footpath. When it rains, everything turns slushy and the mud flows into our houses,” said Mahantesh from Balagere Cares, a citizens’ group representing residents of the Varthur-Balagere area.
Now, with the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), through its ‘Safe Footpath’ campaign attempting to remove the hurdles that pedestrians usually face, there are allegations that street vendors were removed from several locations, but that it has not acted against juice counters, ice cream kiosks and paan stalls operated by several restaurant chains that occupy large portions of footpaths. In many places, two-wheelers and official vehicles belonging to agencies such as BWSSB and the police are also found parked on pavements, with no action taken.
It remains to be seen if this ambitious drive will make Bengaluru a more walkable city, or if pedestrians will continue tackling obstacles as usual.
(This is the first in a series in which The Hindu looks at what ails Bengaluru’s footpaths, the problems faced by the various stakeholders, and what civic agencies are doing to make them safer.)
Published – July 06, 2026 12:46 am IST
