City's footpaths to get concrete marble chip finish footpaths this year

Ajoy Mehta

After the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation decided to remove all paver blocks on the roads and carry out fresh road repairs, the city's footpaths will now undergo the same process. Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta has instructed all the officials to get the footpaths concretised, and opting for a marble chip finish, to make them look more aesthetic.

The city's footpaths have been in poor condition over the years. They have either been occupied by hawkers or by bad patches where the paver blocks have not been placed in order. The BMC has been facing tremendous criticism on social media for the same as well. As a mitigation measure, the BMC has revised its footpath repair policy, and the administration has decided to use cement concrete on footpaths as well.

On Saturday, Mehta directed all the officials to use stencil concrete or cement concrete for footpaths on roads wider than 90 feet and cement concrete for roads wider than 60 feet. Mehta has also instructed the ward officers that no new permissions for structure or stalls should be given by the BMC and the footpaths should be free for citizens to walk. A ward officer on condition of anonymity said, "No new footpath will be made using paver blocks and the ones that have pavers fitted, will be taken up for replacement in phases."

Waste reduction
Further in the review meeting, Mehta has given targets to all 24 wards to reduce waste that goes to the dumping grounds every day. Every ward has an individual target to achieve by end of 2019, and Mehta demanded the ward officials to reduce 500 to 700 tonnes of waste at least every day. In 2015, the city produced 9,500 tonnes of waste daily, and by 2018, it had reduced to 7,500 tonnes and continued with this reduction by mandating segregation and composting in the societies.

Every ward has a different target and P south ward that covers Goregaon East and West have a target to reduce 73 tonnes, whereas T ward which is Mulund area is expected to reduce 56 tonnes. The ward officers were also asked to give a presentation on how these targets will be achieved. While some said the segregation and in situ composting will be done on priority, others were of the opinion that small scientific waste processing units at ward level can be tried out.

90
feet roads to get cement concrete for footpaths

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