In Telangana, the right to walk derailed by design

You exit a metro station in Hyderabad and go for a routine kilometer walk. Within a few minutes the path disappears under a series of obstacles. Parked SUVs block the road and broken pavements require careful treading; Poles, cable wires, signs and construction materials fill the road. At some points, pedestrians are forced to choose between crossing the chaos or entering road traffic.

On the path between Jubilee Hills Checkpost Metro Station and the entrance to KBR National Park, a simple walk often turns into an exercise in alertness.

The pavement is repeatedly interrupted by subway structures, utility infrastructure, commercial encroachments, and construction debris. Near the intersection, a maze of poles, cables and scaffolding leaves little room to cross. Along the way, barricades, food trucks, a public restroom, bus stops, trees, and other obstacles divide the trail before it abruptly ends near the park entrance. Nearby, sections of collapsed pavement are being cleared to create additional road space for an overpass to ease traffic congestion.

Considered one of Hyderabad’s better footpaths, this is a reality that dovetails uneasily with the Supreme Court’s recent judgment recognizing the ‘Right to Walk’ as a fundamental right. The apex court held that the freedom to walk on demarcated and well-maintained footpaths takes precedence over motor vehicles. Justice PS Narasimha observed that safe and carefree walking on footpaths without danger lurking at every turn is among the most fundamental rights and is inextricably linked with life itself.

The court also recommended policy measures, including the establishment of a regulatory body with a legal and legal framework to protect the right to walk.

For the Telangana government to implement the decision in letter and spirit, it may need to fundamentally rethink its urban mobility priorities and place pedestrian infrastructure at the center of road development planning.

No paths in electrical corridors

As it stands, sidewalks and pedestrian facilities feature nowhere among the city’s major infrastructure initiatives. Even the roads surrounding Hyderabad’s legislative and administrative centers remain devoid of basic pedestrian amenities, putting hundreds of lives at risk every day.

Major intersections close to the state’s urban legislative and administrative centers lack footpaths and other pedestrian facilities, putting hundreds of lives at risk.

The walk from Lakdikapul Metro Station to Aranya Bhavan in Saifabad provides another example. Along the road that passes in front of the police station and the State Legislative Assembly, pedestrians are forced to navigate about 50 meters through a narrow, smelly stretch between heavy traffic and the highlands of Ravindra Bharathi, the cultural hub of the state. The pathway next to the Parliament, opposite the intersection, remains closed for VVIP security. Further along, a popular restaurant has effectively turned the pavement into a two-wheeler parking area via a temporary ramp.

“I walk more than two kilometers every day, and less than 20% of the distance has usable footpaths. Most of the roads have nothing resembling paths. There are also only named footpaths, but they are uneven and dangerous,” says citizen-activist Natasha Ramarathnam from the city.

“There are other footpaths too, which are completely occupied by stalls and exhibition halls. Wherever a new construction is built, it intrudes a foot or so into the footpath. So, when the Supreme Court talks about the right to walk on footpaths, it becomes the biggest joke here, because there are literally no footpaths in Hyderabad,” he points out, adding that Kolkata and Mumbai, where he had previously resided, are comparatively more walkable.

Kilometers of roads, missing walking paths

The problem is not limited to a few episodes. Within the limits of the erstwhile Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the city had over 800 kilometers of four-plus lane roads, which were supposed to have pedestrian walkways on both sides. Of the approximately 1,600 kilometers of trails needed, only about 430 kilometers were available, most of which were too narrow or occupied for practical use. Although the government launched an initiative to build footpaths along major roads in 2019, this effort fell far short.

Since then, the city has expanded to the Outer Ring Road (ORR) and the civic body has been divided into three branches. Hyderabad currently has 886 km of four-lane roads, 242 km of six-lane roads and 65 km of eight-lane roads, all of which require well-designed and maintained pedestrian infrastructure.

Indian Road Congress standards mandate safe, continuous and accessible footpaths on roads where vehicle speed exceeds 15 km per hour. The guidelines stipulate that pedestrian path width should be planned in three distinct zones: the pedestrian or walking zone, the frontage or dead zone, and the multi-use zone with footpaths wide enough to accommodate pedestrians, street furniture, bus stops, trees, vendors, and other public amenities. But such standards are far from reality on most urban roads.

Pedestrians navigate heavy vehicular traffic due to lack of footpaths in Hyderabad’s Abids on Thursday. | Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

The pedestrian zone alone must be at least two meters (six feet) wide to allow two wheelchairs to pass comfortably. Meeting all these elements on commercial roads would require footpaths 5 to 7.5 meters (16 to 24 feet) wide, the equivalent of a two-lane road, a difficult proposition in a city where road space is at a premium.

Urban transport expert Prashanth Bachu rejects the claim that there is not enough space for pedestrian infrastructure in Hyderabad. He says wider footpaths and better public transport will reduce traffic congestion rather than worsening it: “We have roads so wide that we can land planes on them. It is absolutely wrong to say there is traffic, so we widen the roads. Because the road is wide, there is a lot of traffic. The bigger the pipe, the more water there will be.”

According to him, restricting road space encourages more people to use public transport, which creates demand for better services and investment on the part of the government.

“As soon as you widen the road beyond two lanes in one direction, the possibility of crossing the road becomes almost nonexistent. This means that everyone who wants to cross the road will resort to private transportation such as bicycles and cars,” he points out.

In other words, by providing wider roads that become increasingly difficult to pass, cities run the risk of pushing people who might otherwise walk or use public transport to opt for private vehicles.

Road to more traffic

For much of the past decade, governments have invested heavily in wider carriageways and road junctions, but additional road space is rapidly being consumed by the increasing number of private vehicles. An example of this is the P. Janardhan Reddy (PJR) flyover (also known as Shilpa Layout Phase 2 flyover) connecting Kondapur and Gachibowli, which witnessed severe congestion soon after its launch a year ago.

Under the Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP), implemented since 2016, Hyderabad has added 42 flyovers, underpasses and bridges at a cost of over ₹8,000 crore to provide signal-free travel up to ORR. Meanwhile, public transportation continued to shrink.

Pedestrians walk on the road in front of the State Assembly in Hyderabad on Thursday. | Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

The total number of vehicles in Greater Hyderabad has increased from around 50 lakh in 2016 to over 94 lakh by August 2025. A mobility study by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority found a massive shift away from public transport between 2011 and 2024. While public transport use fell from 42% to 25%, the share of cars quadrupled during this period from 4% to 16%.

Road Transport Authority data shows that the number of two-wheelers has also increased from 21.45 lakh in 2011 to 65 lakh in 2025. But pedestrians continue to bear a disproportionate share of the consequences. Police records show that 390 pedestrians were killed on Hyderabad and Siberabad roads in 2025; this accounts for 35% of the 1,120 traffic fatalities. In recent years pedestrians have consistently accounted for 30% to 40% of all road deaths.

The simultaneous increase in private vehicle use and decline in public transport suggests that many former walkers are switching to motorized modes of travel. “We have heavily subsidized private travel. Every private company pays car allowances and provides free parking. No company pays for bus tickets. It is a clear economic incentive that drives this mentality,” says Bachu.

He points to the economics of mobility to back up his claim: While car prices haven’t even doubled in the last three decades, public transport costs have risen exponentially, making two-wheelers seem both safer and more affordable.

He also points out that various traffic management measures inadvertently make life difficult for those traveling on foot. Free left turns, closing intersections to encourage U-turns, and blocking medians with barricades, although ostensibly done to reduce pedestrian deaths, have made crossing roads more difficult.

For the safety of walkers, it says carriageways should be limited to two lanes in each direction and separated by a wide median where people can wait while crossing the road. He argues that much of the city’s road infrastructure is based on unscientific guesswork and was built without adhering to established rules.

The path to a walkable city

An alternative approach can be found in Bengaluru’s Tender SURE initiative, which developed street design guidelines in 2011 and implemented pilot projects involving footpaths, cycleways, organized retail zones, public spaces and service corridors between 2014 and 2017. The model has proven successful enough to be adopted for more roads. The guidelines have also been adopted by the Center for the Smart Cities Mission.

However, in Telangana, pedestrian infrastructure remains largely lacking in residential arrangements. The TS-bPASS Act 2020 only mentions pedestrian pathways in relation to underground conduits for public services and does not explicitly mandate them as a pedestrian safety measure.

Meanwhile, enforcement is largely limited to periodic drives by the Traffic Police and GHMC to eliminate violations on footpaths.

Officials say that could change with the proposed CURE Act, which includes provisions requiring urban local agencies to create and maintain footpaths, crosswalks, curb ramps, tactile pathways, street furniture, bus stops and other pedestrian facilities. It also provides inclusive infrastructure as well as designated pedestrian and non-motorised transport corridors under the Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.