Roads in Colaba, Churchgate to become pedestrian-friendly

Mumbai: Roads in A ward, which consists of business districts like Colaba, Fort and Churchgate, will soon be pedestrian-friendly as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to repair the footpaths to facilitate smooth movement of pedestrians.

The civic body will soon undertake pavement repairs works, wherein it will carry out restoration of damaged and crumbled paver blocks, laying of new paver blocks and repairs of joints of stone footpaths etc.

The repair works will be carried out under the BMC’s policy of making ‘pedestrian first’ roads. The civic body, in its ‘pedestrian first’ policy, has decided to give priority to pedestrians instead of vehicles. In BMC’s mobility plan, it has also been recommended to give equal importance to the restoration of footpaths along with roads. The civic body accordingly has decided to implement the policy from the A ward.

According to civic officials, Mumbai is the financial capital of the city, and there are several prominent buildings, banks, and historic monuments like share market, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Gateway of India, Taj Hotel etc in the jurisdiction of A ward.

“Lakhs of people, after getting down at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Churchgate, use road footpaths to reach their workplaces in A ward. Even the foreign tourists prefer walking on pavements instead of using vehicles. Hence there is an urgent need to repair the footpaths, which see a lot of wear and tear due to their heavy use,” said a senior civic official.

A bid to repair footpaths in A ward has been awarded to M/s Kailash Constructions at the cost of nearly Rs 1.50 crore.