Mumbai: BMC wants to make city pedestrian-friendly

Ward officials asked to create standardised design. File pic

Giving pedestrianisation a once over, especially after the Shiv Sena has come to power in the state, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) intends to work on developing the city's aesthetics and ensuring that pedestrians are given more importance.

While the civic body had been planning to undertake this task for a long time, on Tuesday, Municipal Commissioner (MC) Praveen Pardeshi gave instructions to a few ward officials to initiate putting up uniform private and public signages around shops across the city, along with ensuring uniform lengths and widths of footpaths and roads.

Initially, the plan was drafted only for Fort and surrounding areas, but Pardeshi has now directed officials in the rest of the city to replicate it. In a meeting on Tuesday, the standardisation of size, shape, colour, street furniture, and direction signage was discussed and decided upon. Officials were also directed to build railings in places of compound walls for better visibility.

The plan also includes uniform gardens, bus stops, billboards, dustbins, footpath flooring, standard billboards, streetlights, among others. A pedestrian-friendly Mumbai has been the demand of Shiv Sena MLA and Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray.

An official, who was part of the meeting, said, "The MC has directed ward officials to ensure there is no encroachment on footpaths and that a standardised design is created and implemented at the earliest. Gardens shouldn't have wall on the border as pedestrians too should be able to enjoy their greenery." Officials were also told to get in touch with Google to ensure the BEST mobile application develops well.

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