He is known for making the best out of waste. VR Iyer, an international tennis coach and a Limca Book of Records nominee, on Saturday had a lesson for the civic body on how to set up ‘temporary pedestrian-only lanes’ using discarded cobblestones.

 

The 60-plus retired mechanical engineer used these stones on the ‘extremely pedestrian-unfriendly’ road at Milan Subway to set up a lane to be used exclusively by pedestrians. “The road is unsafe for pedestrians. Vehicles clog the road and its sides, leaving no space for people to walk,” Iyer said.

 

Iyer decided to use his skill of using waste material to come up with a solution to the issue of space for pedestrians after observing that despite several complaints, the civic authorities had not addressed the problem.

 

With the help of a few supporters, Iyer picked up the cobblestones left unattended by a road contractor who had spruced up a portion of the sidewalk in the area. Iyer placed these at a distance of 10 m from each other to carve out the pedestrian-only lane.

 

He said vehicles the stones would deter the vehicles from entering the pedestrian lane. And the crude, yet effective solution, neither cost Iyer a single penny nor take a lot of his time. “BMC could take a cue from this and set up permanent pedestrian-friendly lanes,” Iyer said, adding that he drew inspiration from the satyagrahas by activist pedestrians in the city.

 

Apart from a successful engineering career from which he retired as a project manager with a firm in Nairobi, Kenya, Iyer has coached two national tennis champions — Gaurav Natekar and Asif Ismail. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award by the state lawn tennis association.

 

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