Shrinking pedestrian amenities has made the city a more dangerous environment for walkers, reports Madhavi Rajadhyaksha for Tamil News Network (TNN reports are published on The Times of India):
"Footpath width ranged from nil to three metres on the trunk road from Worli Naka to the Racecourse , falling short of the mandatory minimum width in many pockets , despite a rush of 759 adults and 259 children every hour during peak hours. 'There used to be over three-metre-wide pavements in the past which have shrunk after a flyover was constructed and road widening undertaken. Existing pavements are reduced due to encroachments by electric and telecom boxes, trees and even bus stops,' said (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) director Rakesh Kumar."
Comments
No space for the pedestrian in Mumbai
It is the greatest irony that the lack of space for the pedestrians on Mumbai roads has been created by the so called Planners in the name of facilitating the Pedestrians!
Enamored of the term "Sky-Walk" ( we Indians used to call it "over-bridge" -grade separated pedestrian road crossing) the planners mindlessly constructed these skywalks all over Mumbai taking away road space earlier used by the motorized vehicles. How? these skywalks run through the middle of the streets for long distances . Anyone is welcome to have a look at these very high cost(for the obvious reasons of generating large kickbacks for those involved) which are mostly deserted and sparsely used. However, as the space for the motor vehicle reduced while their number increased, the pedestrian is the casualty.
Unless this mindless sky-walk building is stopped the pedestrians will continue to suffer. Either we have to demolish these sky-walks or put them to an alternative use by shifting the hawkers occupying the sidewalks to these sky-walks so that the pedestrians can have some space to walk along the roads.
The planners of the concerned Authority responsible for these atrocities must in any case be reined in or sacked
Prakash M. Apte
Urban Development Consultant