Mumbai’s efforts to improve pedestrian infrastructure are facing persistent challenges, with hawkers, parked vehicles, garages, cattle sheds, pipes and accumulated mud continuing to occupy footpaths across several busy parts of the city.
Under its relaunched “Pedestrian First” campaign, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has identified around 320 km of footpaths for removal of encroachments and other obstructions. The civic body said action had been taken on 134 stretches, covering nearly 197 km, by August 29.
However, a ground assessment by Hindustan Times across five locations near railway and Metro stations found that usable pedestrian space remains severely restricted in several places.
At a 22-metre stretch opposite Dadar station, a four-metre-wide footpath was fully occupied by around 30 hawkers, leaving no space for pedestrians. Mud had also made another section beneath a bridge unusable.
Outside Chembur station, hawkers occupied four-metre-wide footpaths along NG Acharya Marg, a designated non-hawking zone. Only 1.8 metres remained available, with the usable area shrinking further when customers gathered near stalls.
Along the Eastern Express Highway service road at Shell Colony, huts, a cattle shed housing around 12 cows, domestic articles and large pipes occupied a 100-metre section, making the footpath unusable.
Another four-metre-wide stretch near Sarvodaya Anant School had just 1.4 metres of walking space left after garages and a Chinese food shop encroached upon the pavement.
A separate 70-metre footpath, measuring 5.3 metres wide, had about 15 food stalls and parked two-wheelers, leaving only 1.6 metres for pedestrians.
Rishi Agarwal, founder of the Walking Project, said many problems could be addressed through stronger enforcement of existing footpath, hawking and parking rules. He said illegal parking remained a major obstacle and urged citizens to demand implementation of existing policies.
Advocate Trivankumar Karnani, founder of MNCDF Citizen Welfare Forum, said the condition of Mumbai’s footpaths reflected shortcomings in civic enforcement.
The BMC has said pedestrians account for nearly half of Mumbai’s daily trips. The continuing encroachments, however, raise questions about whether the city’s pedestrian-first policy is translating into clear, continuous and usable walking space on the ground.
Source: Hindustan Times
