16 hours Ago By Mid-day
To make Mumbai’s footpaths more pedestrian-friendly, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has adopted a strict ‘no ramp on footpath’ policy. As part of the ongoing concreting of roads, the civic body is also repairing footpaths and roadside drains. During this process, ramps built by societies and commercial buildings for vehicle movement were removed.
Once roads, drains and footpaths are completed, no ramps obstructing walkability will be permitted. While the ramp removal is one issue, it is time to repair footpaths so that people can use them. Cavities, broken sections and height differences that pose challenges for senior citizens must be tackled.
The first step is to eliminate encroachments that have made pavements ‘disappear’ altogether. It does not matter how many ramps you remove, if encroachments continue, footpaths will remain inaccessible. Small shops sprouting on pavements, hawkers squatting on footpaths, eateries spreading out on pavements with tables and chairs for people, this is a familiar scenario in Mumbai and hugely problematic for people.
Of late, we have a new problem—two-wheelers venturing onto footpaths, with riders climbing these spaces and riding across them, sending pedestrians scurrying to the sides. A few bollards have been installed, but we need fines and strict penalties for this usurping of the space. There are any number of bikes parked on pavements outside residential buildings.
If there is a bike showroom, motorcycles are sometimes parked on the footpath outside. This is becoming more common with footpaths now becoming parking lots for vehicles. There are vagrants living on pavements, especially at corners with some kind of makeshift housing, which is also a takeover of the public space.
‘Pedestrian-friendly’ means fighting a battle on many fronts..
