Chennai: Touted and unveiled as a show-piece ‘smart’ civic amenity, the 40-crore Pedestrian Plaza in T Nagar is now a chaotic free-for-all zone. Shop owners, in collusion with traffic police and Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) personnel, have taken over the concrete pavements and installed makeshift stands to display their wares. The remaining space is occupied by their vehicles, throughout the day.When contacted, assistant engineer of ward 133, Anand, said the civic body had written to R1 and R4 police stations seeking support for towing the illegally parked vehicles. “They have agreed to provide support by Wednesday,” he said.A police station located just a stone’s throw away from the stretch has turned a blind eye to the encroachments. However, West Mambalam traffic enforcement wing inspector Sai Shameema said, “We are evacuating the vehicles parked illegally on Pedestrian Plaza, as and when we receive any specific complaints or during patrolling.”But the officials are silent about the chaos on the pavement. Shop owners are the biggest culprits, as they occupy much of the paved walkway and then engage men to canvass among the pedestrians. The street furniture placed on the walkway has been flicked by shops according to their convenience.Push carts, semi-permanent structures selling eatables, construction materials, broken granites and open pits make it hazardous for young and old. It is dirty, noisy. Two-wheelers routinely mount the 15-metre-wide plaza, ride through it, and park haphazardly, reducing pedestrian space to barely three-four metres. The bollards that were meant to block vehicle entry were knocked over in several spots.Inaugurated in 2019 by GCC, the 700-metre stretch (1.4 km both ways) originally promised a seamless, vehicle-free walking experience. Today, it’s anything but that.“There’s a multi-level parking facility that can hold 100 cars and 200 bikes, but it has less than 10% occupancy every day. Neither police nor the GCC books people who park on the road. If they take action, people will start using the Multi-Level Parking (MLP) facility,” said R Avinash, a resident. He added that cops must ban on-street parking on the entire stretch.