MUMBAI: Two months after the BMC relaunched its ‘Pedestrian First’ campaign, claiming to have cleared hundreds of footpaths of encroachments and made walking spaces safer, residents of Chandivali have conducted their own audit, documenting narrow and obstructed footpaths, illegal parking, dumping and other impediments they say belie the civic body’s claims.
The roads serve nearly 200 buildings across the neighbourhood, where a rapidly growing population has placed increasing pressure on already congested roads and inadequate pedestrian infrastructure. Residents’ findings The audit found footpaths narrowing to as little as 1.4 metres at some locations. One section was measured at around a foot, compared with the 150-mm (15-cm) standard cited under Indian Roads Congress guidelines, the group said. Residents found that a roughly 200-metre stretch, including an area near a bus stop, had effectively turned into an open dumping ground, making it difficult for pedestrians to use.
After the new BMC commissioner announced the Pedestrian First campaign, we kept reading about hundreds of footpaths being cleared of encroachments. Because of the condition of these roads and footpaths, “We have been suffering. Residents also flagged what they described as poor road design. On some stretches, kerbs were substantially higher than the prescribed standard. One of the key stretches audited was IRB Road towards Hiranandani Gardens in Powai, which has four schools and a hospital and is heavily used by pedestrians travelling from Chandivali.
We wanted to see how this drive was actually taking shape in our neighbourhood,” said Mandeep Singh Makkar, founder of CCWA. Residents said all four stretches had one or more obstructions, including illegal parking, hawkers, stalls, staircases from slum structures, encroachments, dumping and large hoardings that further reduced the space available for pedestrians. Makkar said inadequate pedestrian infrastructure was also contributing to traffic congestion by forcing residents to depend on private vehicles.
The Chandivali Citizens Welfare Association (CCWA) on Tuesday audited four prominent pedestrian stretches connecting Chandivali Nahar, Lake Homes, Raheja Vihar and other high-rise townships.
