BMC Chief Ashwini Bhide Inspects Pedestrians First Drive in South Mumbai
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner Ashwini Bhide on Monday inspected footpaths across five South Mumbai wards, including Nana Chowk, Grant Road, Tardeo, Marine Lines, and Crawford Market, under the civic body’s ‘Pedestrians First’ initiative. During the ground assessment, she ordered a strict audit of licensed vending spaces and directed officials to act against violators.
The inspection followed concerns raised by corporators during last week’s Standing Committee meeting regarding the poor ground-level implementation of the drive. The review covered critical stretches such as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marg, Lokmanya Tilak Marg, Chandanwadi, and the vicinity of B. Y. L. Nair Hospital, focusing on footpath conditions, identifying damaged stretches, and assessing necessary repair works.
Bhide instructed civic officials to improve, beautify, and secure pedestrian pathways by removing all encroachments and obstructions so that changes remain visible to citizens. She also emphasised protecting tree roots, conducting proper pruning, and scientifically removing unsafe trees in line with regulations, alongside taking strict action against hawkers operating beyond designated vending zones.
During the visit, the municipal commissioner personally verified hawker licences and told vendors to operate strictly within permitted limits without blocking pedestrian movement. Civic officials were instructed to improve pedestrian access near Grant Road Railway Station, Jagannath Shankar Sheth Metro Station, and B. Y. L. Nair Hospital.
Bhide also reviewed waste-management infrastructure and key Garbage Vulnerable Points across the area. She directed officials to install ‘No Littering’ signboards, deploy CCTV surveillance at recurring dumping locations, beautify those spots, and strengthen dry-waste segregation and labelling.
In the first phase of the drive, the BMC is targeting 200 footpaths across Mumbai, with work underway on 81 stretches. Civic teams have cleared nearly 68 kilometres of footpaths and initiated 443 enforcement actions, focusing on routes connecting railway and Metro stations, hospitals, educational institutions, government offices, and religious places by removing unauthorised structures, hawker blockades, stored materials, and signboards.
