You step out of a metro station in Hyderabad and set out on a regular one kilometer walk. Within a few minutes, the sidewalk disappears beneath several obstacles. Parked SUVs block the way and the broken pavement requires caution, while poles, cable wires, signboards and construction material crowd the route. At many points, pedestrians have to choose between dealing with chaos and yielding to road traffic.
Between the Jubilee Hills Checkpost metro station and the entrance to the KBR National Park, a simple walk often becomes an exercise in vigilance.
The footpath is frequently obstructed by metro structures, utility infrastructure, commercial encroachment and construction debris. Near the junction, there is a maze of poles, cables and scaffolding that leaves little space to pass through. Across the road, barricades, food trucks, a public restroom, bus shelters, trees and other obstacles punctuate the route before it ends abruptly near the park entrance. Nearby, sections of collapsed footpath are being cleared to create additional road space for a flyover aimed at reducing congestion.
Such is the condition of the footpath, considered one of the better footpaths of Hyderabad, a reality which is made uncomfortable by the recent decision of the Supreme Court recognizing the ‘right to walk’ as a fundamental right. The top court held that freedom of movement on demarcated and well-maintained footpaths takes precedence over motorized vehicles. Justice PS Narasimha said walking safely and carefree on footpaths without danger lurking at every turn is one of the most fundamental rights and is integral to life.
The court also suggested policy measures, including the establishment of a regulatory body with a legal and statutory framework to protect the right to walk.
For the Telangana government to implement the judgment in letter and spirit, it will have to fundamentally rethink its urban mobility priorities and put pedestrian infrastructure at the center of road development planning.
No footpath in the corridors of power
As things stand, footpaths and pedestrian facilities are nowhere among the city’s major infrastructure initiatives. Even the roads around Hyderabad’s legislative and administrative centers are deprived of basic pedestrian facilities, putting the lives of hundreds of people at risk every day.
Major junctions close to the state’s legislative and administrative centers in the city are devoid of footpaths and other pedestrian facilities, putting the lives of hundreds of people at risk.
The walking distance from Ladikapul metro station to Aranya Bhawan in Saifabad offers another example. On a stretch passing the police headquarters and the state legislative assembly, pedestrians are forced to walk for about 50 meters through a narrow, stinking space between heavy traffic and the elevated grounds of Rabindra Bharati, the state’s cultural centre. Across the junction, the footpath next to the Assembly remains closed in the name of VVIP security. Even further ahead, a popular restaurant has effectively converted the footpath into a two-wheeler parking area through a temporary ramp.
“I walk more than two kilometers every day, and less than 20% of the distance has usable footpaths. For the most part, there is nothing like footpaths in the streets. Then you have footpaths that exist only in name, but the surface is cracked and dangerous,” says city-based citizen-activist Natasha Ramratnam.
“There are other footpaths which have been completely taken over by stalls and showrooms. Wherever there is new construction, it encroaches a foot into the footpath. So, basically when the Supreme Court talks about the right to walk on the footpath, it is the biggest joke here, because there are virtually no footpaths in Hyderabad,” she says, adding that Kolkata and Mumbai, where she lived earlier, were comparatively more walkable.
miles long roads, missing paths
The problem is not limited to some parts. Within the limits of the erstwhile Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the city had more than 800 kilometers of four-lane roads, which were supposed to have pedestrian walkways on both sides. Of the approximately 1,600 kilometers of footpaths required, only 430 kilometers existed, many of which were too narrow or encroached upon for practical use. Although the government launched an initiative in 2019 to build footpaths on major roads, the effort fell far short.
Since then, the city has expanded up to the Outer Ring Road (ORR) and the civic body has been divided into three parts. Hyderabad now 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 well-maintained pedestrian infrastructure.
Indian Road Congress standards mandate safe, continuous and accessible footpaths on roads where vehicle speed exceeds 15 kmph. The guidelines envisage that sidewalk width should be planned in three distinct areas: pedestrian or pedestrian zone, frontage or dead zone, and multi-utility zone, in which sidewalks should be wide enough to accommodate pedestrians, street furniture, bus stops, trees, vendors, and other public amenities. However, such standards are far from reality on most city roads.
In the absence of footpaths, pedestrians make their way through the hustle and bustle of vehicles in Abids, Hyderabad on Thursday. | Photo Courtesy: Nagara Gopal
The pedestrian zone alone must be at least two meters (six feet) wide so that two wheelchairs can pass comfortably. On commercial roads, accommodating all these elements would require a 5 to 7.5 m (16 to 24 ft) wide footpath, equivalent to a two-lane road, and a difficult proposition in a city where road space is at a premium.
Urban transport expert Prashant Bachchu rejects the argument that Hyderabad lacks space for pedestrian infrastructure. He says that wider sidewalks and better public transport will reduce rather than reduce traffic congestion: “We have roads so wide that we can land airplanes on them. It is absolutely wrong to say that there is traffic, so we are widening the roads. It is because the wider the road, the more traffic there is. The bigger the pipe, the more water.”
According to him, limited road space encourages more people to use public transport, resulting in demand for better services and investment from the government.
“As soon as you widen the road to more than two lanes in one direction, the chances of crossing the road become negligible. This means that every person who needs to cross the road will resort to personal transport like a bike or car,” he explains.
In other words, by providing wide roads that are increasingly difficult to cross, cities risk pushing people toward private vehicles who might otherwise walk or use public transportation.
high traffic route
Over the past decade, governments have invested heavily in wider carriageways and grade separators, only to have the extra road space quickly gobbled up by increasing numbers of private vehicles. An example is the P. Janardhana Reddy (PJR) flyover (also known as Shilpa Layout Phase 2 flyover) connecting Kondapur and Gachibowli, which saw 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 with the aim of enabling signal-free travel to ORR. Meanwhile, public transportation continued to shrink.
Pedestrians walking on the road in front of the State Assembly in Hyderabad on Thursday. | Photo Courtesy: Nagara Gopal
The total number of vehicles in Greater Hyderabad is expected to increase 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 declined from 42% to 25%, the share of cars quadrupled from 4% to 16% during that period.
Data from the Road Transport Authority shows that the number of two-wheelers has also increased, from 21.45 lakh in 2011 to 65 lakh in 2025. However, pedestrians suffer a disproportionate share of its consequences. Police records show that 390 pedestrians were killed on Hyderabad and Cyberabad roads in 2025, which was 35% of the 1,120 road accident deaths. 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 transportation suggests that many former pedestrians have shifted to motorized means of travel. Bachu says, “We have heavily subsidized private travel. Every private company gives car allowance and provides free car parking. No company pays for a bus pass. It is a clear economic incentive that has driven this mentality.”
To strengthen his argument, he points to the economics of mobility: while car prices have not even doubled in the last three decades, public transport costs have increased manifold, making two-wheelers appear both safe and cost-effective.
He also points out that many traffic management measures have inadvertently made life difficult for those traveling on foot. Free left turns, closure of junctions to encourage U-turns and barricading of medians have made crossing roads more difficult, although this was done to reduce pedestrian deaths.
He says that for the safety of pedestrians, the carriageway should be limited to two lanes in each direction and separated by a wide median where people can wait while crossing. He argues that much of the city’s road infrastructure is based on unscientific estimates and is built without following established guidelines.
walkable city path
An alternative approach can be found in Bengaluru’s Tender Sure initiative, which developed road design guidelines in 2011 and implemented pilot projects featuring footpaths, cycle tracks, organized vending zones, public spaces and utility corridors between 2014 and 2017. This model proved successful enough to be adopted for more roads. Guidelines for Smart City Mission have also been adopted by the Centre.
However, in Telangana, pedestrian infrastructure is largely absent from the layout rules. The TS-BPASS Act, 2020, only mentions footpaths in relation to underground conduits for utilities and does not explicitly mandate them as a pedestrian safety measure.
Enforcement, meanwhile, is limited to periodic drives by the traffic police and GHMC to remove encroachments from footpaths.
Officials say this could change with the proposed CURE Act, which includes provisions requiring urban local bodies to build and maintain sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, curb ramps, touch paths, street furniture, bus stops and other pedestrian amenities. It also provides for designated pedestrian and non-motorized transport corridors, inclusive infrastructure as per the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
