Over hundred city architects and urban planners write to Deputy Chief Engineer of roads about a problematic tender for changing existing street design. A city and civic body that’s pro-road, anti-footpath is destined for disaster. Here’s why
Architect Kalpit Ashar, one of the winners of the Mumbai Street Lab competition at MS Ali Road in Grant Road East, which his firm was supposed to develop. Pic/Atul Kamble
In 2019, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), in collaboration with the World Resource Institute (WRI), invited urban planners to join hands with its engineers to redesign the city’s streets to make them safer and inclusive. Mumbai Street Lab was the first-of-its-kind project in which five arterial roads—SV Road, Nepean Sea Road, Vikhroli Parksite Road No. 17, Maulana Shaukat Ali Road and Rajaram Mohan Roy Road—were selected for improvements that included pedestrian-friendly interventions, walking and cycling paths, and ideas for smooth vehicular movement. Each winner was promised a R5 lakh prize money.