To rid the city’s footpaths of encroachments, BMC’s newly appointed additional commissioner (city) Ashish Sharma has instructed ward officers to visit streets in their respective wards every week and take necessary actions wherever required.
"The condition of footpaths is a clear indicator of how concerned the BMC is about its citizens. Things always start improving when you focus on them and these small changes can make a few differences,” said Sharma. He has instructed ward officers of some areas to inspect streets in their wards for the next few days. The BMC is already working on the improvement of footpaths on the Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road. But, the work on the Western Express Highway metro station to the Saki Naka junction is facing several hurdles in the form of unauthorized parking and encroachments.
The BMC has decided to repair and beautify footpaths in three municipal wards of Andheri West, Borivali and Dahisar to make them encroachment free and pedestrian-friendly. Two years back, the civic body had taken up beautification work of footpaths in some of the heritage precinct areas in south Mumbai. In October last year, the BMC roads department identified 33 different locations in south and central Mumbai for carrying out improvement works on the footpaths. The corporation had replaced the existing paver blocks with cement and concrete footpaths in all of these projects.
