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Parents dropping children at a kindergarten on Sebzor Street in Tashkent’s Shaykhantakhur district have been forced to walk along an active carriageway for years — because the pavement that once ran past the site was blocked off when a construction company fenced the adjacent plot with metal hoardings, and no alternative footpath was ever provided.
The fenced land belongs to a company registered as REAL QURILISH BUILDING LLC. Although no construction work has begun on the site, the metal barriers remain in place, eliminating the pedestrian walkway that previously served not only the kindergarten but also nearby schools and a higher-education institution. The closure was confirmed in a written response from the Construction and Housing-Communal Services Inspection to a citizen complaint.
Parents Describe Daily Danger
Residents interviewed at the scene described the road as genuinely hazardous. One mother said she feared her children would run ahead into traffic, that the surface turns to mud after rain, and that some drivers pass at speed without slowing for pushchairs or small children. Another parent said a car had already struck his older son from behind while the boy was riding a bicycle on the same stretch. A third resident noted that reaching a pedestrian crossing requires a lengthy detour because there is no pavement even as far as the nearest traffic light.
“Of course it is dangerous. But where am I supposed to walk? If there is no pavement, I have no choice but to use this road,” one local resident said.
District Pledges a Temporary Fix Within 20 Days
Kun.uz, which investigated the problem on the ground and approached the district administration, secured a response from Shaykhantakhur deputy district head Rasul Kuchkarov. He acknowledged that the blocked walkway was directly linked to the fenced construction site, identifying the stalled project as an embassy building whose works have been suspended.
“We can find a solution. There is a stalled embassy project here — we will push back the hoardings, clear the area, and lay a standard-width pavement so that residents have some relief, even if it is temporary. That will take about 15 to 20 days. There is preparatory work to do. Even as a temporary measure, people will have a safe path to walk in rain and snow,” Kuchkarov said.
He added that the area falls within a designated renovation zone and that the administration would work to open and shift the barriers to create a walkway. He also stated that no formal complaint had reached the district office on this matter — a claim that residents directly contradicted. They said they had submitted two separate complaints and produced a written reply letter bearing the deputy district head’s own name as the signatory.
The district administration has now committed publicly to installing a temporary standard-width pavement within 15 to 20 days. Whether that promise is kept — on a street where children have already been struck by vehicles and where the hazard has persisted for several years — is the question residents are now watching.