vijayawada encroachments on footpaths are putting pedestrians at risk a majority of the pedestrian pathways in the city are occupied by vendors and shops while the main roads were designed with footpaths encroachments on walkways are forcing citizens to walk along the sides of roads as a result road accidents involving pedestrians have become prevalent across the city many shops on mg road and eluru road have been using the footpaths for parking their staffs vehicles we are facing difficulty in walking on eluru road on the stretch between apsara theatre and kotha vantena shop owners have occupied the footpath and placed items for sale they are confronting pedestrians who walk on the footpaths said m barghava a private firm employee it is the right of the pedestrians to use footpaths but huge bins are placed on footpath besides transformers at all india rail station at mg road and gunadala centre said kl aadiram a rights activistwhen contacted the town planning wing of vijayawada municipal corporation vmc said it has been conducting regular drives to clear encroachments on footpaths officials said stringent action will be taken against shops that turn footpaths into parking spaces