Trampled In Temple Road!

The Temple Road, an important Road connecting Yadavagiri to Jayalaksmipuram via intersecting K.R.S. Road, is on the verge of becoming a Trample Road, especially for Pedestrians. May be quite a few roads in Mysore are like this. It’s worth having a look as to what happens here everyday.

The Road is a microcosm of life, as it were. The past and future meet here at the present…. It is a mini India with Venkataramanaswamy and Shiva Temples rubbing shoulders with I-Robots from New York , Sankalpa Builders, Shubam, Loyal World Super Market, Logrosoft and UTI & Centurian Banks. The Andal Manram is close to to Pizza Hut and Dominos (Half an hour late –Free Pizza!).

Housewives, senior citizens, school children use this stretch of road everyday from morning to night, mostly by walking.

The Road was wide enough and generally peaceful with stray and regular cattle with pigs sharing the avenue with pedestrians until recently, till, the Mysore City Corporation got a brainwave to convert into a ‘double Road’, without bothering about consequences.

The stretch of this road between Mahatma Gandhi circle and Mathru Mandali circle resembles a street twisted out of its bearings in Baghdad, due to American bombing of a bazaar and after effects of a suicide car- bombing at the very same place!

Now the road has a shoddy divider, with mud work spilling both sides of the road. The footpaths (Foodpaths!) continue to be haunted by 100% profit Idli- vada- dosa-Gobi Manchurian joints, Chinese, Thailand and Mongolian Food Carts (Mobile food Courts!). Operating under the aegis of Central Roadside Tiffin Food Research Institute (CRTFRI) under the patronage of Health Dept. of MCC, they can put the renowned CFTRI to shame! Daily lottery vendors with their ever-hopeful bakras, bent upon having their daily fix hoping to become a millionaire; Soppu, Elaneeru vendors, Buy- anything -you –want- for –Rs. 100 shop on the floor of footpath near Chescom office. It has also booksellers, Chavi repairer, god-knows-who-else…

The Road has a parking- lot for cars on one side, scooters on the other side, parking for cows on all sides in the middle of the road, pigs darting whenever they feel like! The footpath is occupied 24*7 hours by the above mentioned business houses and a small extension of Mysore Zoo!

It has bus shelters made for the convenience of chain snatchers, as the shelters are dark and dingy, due to which passengers wait on the Road; two Autorakshasa- Stands and car parking on one side with radial parking to ensure traffic is blocked / stopped as one takes a reverse, complete the picture.

There is a Dental clinic next to the MCC Bin, which stinks sky-high due to all kinds of waste muck thrown in. Fillings can come real dirt-cheap here for cavities!

One would like to know from the MLA, who recently put his name as one responsible for construction of the Bus stop next to post office, whether he has walked this street, of late? Ditto for MCC Commissioner and the Traffic Police Chief….

Are Roads meant for only cars, autorickshas, scooter and motorcycles , buses, Trucks, JCBs? What about footpaths for pedestrians? Should they allow themselves to be trampled by vehicles or tremble in constant fear of being run over?

IS THERE A FREE WALKABLE FOOTPATH ON TEMPLE ROAD??
WILL THESE GENTLEMEN WALK HERE AT 7 P.M. AND SHOW THE PUBLIC??


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E.R. Ramachandran 25 August 2007