Participants jog along 10 km of footpath around MG Road and the Central Business District on Wednesday.
Credit: BangaloreWALKS
Bengaluru: Early on Wednesday, dozens of participants walked and jogged along 10 km of footpath around MG Road and the Central Business District, as part of the Bengaluru Footpath 10k Run challenge to identify obstacles to walkable footpaths.
The challenge began and ended in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on MG Road, with BangaloreWALKS' Arun Pai spearheading the run.
The challenge, which saw participants from all over the city, encouraged them to walk or run only on the footpaths and take a photograph of any obstacles blocking their way and forcing them onto the road.
Forty-seven participants wrote the number of obstacles they encountered along the way on a whiteboard against their names and volunteered to take ownership of the footpath along the stretch.
"How many times people had to exit the footpath was considered a metric since it is a safety concern indicating that the obstacle needs to be removed on priority. People recorded between three to five obstacles, which is a good number for a 10-km route," Arun added.
Snehal R, Zonal Commissioner, BBMP East Zone, who supported the project, appealed to citizens to flag any concerns found along the way and in other footpaths in the zone. Any footpath obstacles highlighted by the citizens will be taken up by the BBMP.
"We were happy to collaborate with Arun Pai as this challenge gives us constructive feedback and pain points we can address. Our aim is to ensure that the entire length of footpaths in the zone are free of obstacles," she said.
This challenge, Arun noted, is key to provide ground data required to create obstacle-free footpaths along signal-free corridors and decongest the city's major roads.
Clement Jayakumar, member secretary, Mahadevapura Task Force, who also participated in the challenge, noted that they plan to do a similar challenge along the Whitefield metro line to assess the first- and last-mile connectivity challenge of commuters and enhance the quality of accessible footpaths.