BENGALURU: After more than a decade of persistent appeals, RTI filings, and fruitless meetings with government officials, 80-year-old Vijaykumar D V has turned to the judiciary in a final effort to bring about change. The Bengaluru resident has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Karnataka High Court, demanding adequate footpaths across the city to ensure pedestrian safety and accessibility. The PIL names the state government, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) as respondents. Vijaykumar has urged the court to direct the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle or an empowered committee to implement a judicially binding action plan to improve pedestrian infrastructure. “Bengaluru’s roads don’t even guarantee the basic right to walk safely,” he said. “This is about more than just footpaths—it’s about dignity, accessibility, and equality for all.” Vijaykumar, who moved to the city from Chitradurga at the age of 69, had hoped for a peaceful retirement. Instead, he found himself forced to navigate dangerous roads every day, simply to reach the nearest bus stop on Tank Bund Road in Mico Layout—a journey of 10 to 15 minutes that involved walking alongside fast-moving traffic due to the absence of safe walkways. With narrow open drains poorly covered by loose stone slabs standing in for footpaths, Vijaykumar says he was left with no choice but to risk walking on the road itself. “I tried everything—RTI applications, complaints, repeated meetings with BBMP officials—but nothing changed. Filing this PIL was my last resort.” One particular incident that spurred him to act occurred in June 2014. Near Binnypet Garden on Tannery Road, Vijaykumar witnessed a visually impaired woman and a man on crutches struggling to walk on the road in the absence of a footpath. “That moment stayed with me. It made me realise that I wasn’t alone—thousands face this struggle daily.” In 2019, after multiple follow-ups, BBMP officials admitted in writing that the construction of footpaths was not optional but a statutory responsibility. Yet, the situation on the ground remained unchanged. According to Vijaykumar, the BBMP continues to invest heavily in infrastructure aimed at vehicle movement—flyovers, road-widening, underpasses—while pedestrian needs are consistently sidelined. “They’re spending crores to ease traffic flow. But where is the focus on people who walk—on children, elderly, the disabled? What passes for a footpath today is just an open drain covered with uneven stones.” Vijaykumar’s PIL seeks not only physical changes to infrastructure but also a policy-level shift—one that reimagines urban mobility through the lens of inclusivity and safety. His case has sparked discussions on Bengaluru’s declining walkability and the rights of pedestrians in a city increasingly built for cars. The Karnataka High Court is expected to hear the matter in the coming weeks.