Footpaths in Mumbai’s island city in poor condition

Are Mumbaiites safe even during a routine activity such as walking to work, school or the grocery store? The answer from HT’s audit of 10 of the busiest footpaths in the island city is no.

As part of its campaign, HT surveyed routes in the island city with high footfall, such as between train stations and commercial hubs, places of pilgrimage, or gardens. On the one hand, the island city has footpaths on every road, but on the other, HT found them to be unsafe for elderly walkers, differently abled citizens, pregnant women and children. The audited locations included Parel station to KEM Hospital, areas around Phoenix Mall and Kamala Mills in Lower Parel, Shivaji Park, the last mile between Dadar station and Siddhivinayak Temple, the last mile between Mahalaxmi station and Haji Ali Dargah, and Mahalaxmi Temple, from Churchgate to Nariman Point, and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Fort business hub, the popular Hanging Gardens at Malabar Hill, and the Five Gardens area in Wadala.

Footpaths near KEM hospital, Phoenix Mall and Kamala Mills, and Dadar station were encroached upon, with permanent and semi-permanent structures such as street vendor stalls, illegally parked bikes, along with broken or missing paver blocks and elevated drain slabs. Footpaths at many locations were not wide enough for two people to walk along side each other, such as the last mile up to Haji Ali Dargah and Mahalaxmi Temple.

The footpaths around Dadar station, Mahalaxmi station and Kamala Mills lacked basic safety measures such as bollards along the road to allow bikes to traverse though a traffic jam on the carriageway.

Advanced designs such as ramps for the differently abled to access a footpath are missing.

Ashok Datar, an island city-based traffic analyst, said, “It is true that the footpaths lack universal accessibility. But they are not safe even for an active eight-year-old to walk on. Urgent interventions such as streamlined parking, standardised width of the footpaths, elevation vis-a-vis the road, bollards for safety and uniform tree guards are needed. Currently, walking on a footpath in the island city is taxing even for a young and fit person.”

Vijay Singhal, additional municipal commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said, “The island city has dynamic problems such as hawkers and Metro construction, which is temporary. According to the new plan by the BMC, we are adding designs to footpaths that were missing earlier to make them inclusive. A pilot of this plan is being tried in Fort and will be replicated across the city. To improve the condition of island city’s footpaths, we have allotted a fresh fund of ₹90 crore for footpath repairs.”

Singhal said that Mumbai will be able to put the problem of loose or broken paver blocks behind it. “We are now going to use stamped concrete on all footpaths, when we take them up for repair.”