BMC promises to make footpaths walkable at ₹100 crore
BMC's 2025-26 budget includes ₹100 crore for the 'Universal Footpath Policy' to enhance walkability in Mumbai, prioritizing pedestrian safety and accessibility.
Mumbai: Among the optimistic promises of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) 2025-26 budget is the implementation of the ‘Universal Footpath Policy,’ to make Mumbai more pedestrian-friendly and disabled-friendly. With a provision of ₹100 crore, the BMC plans to make incremental improvements to walkability in the city– a long-pending demand from its population who use walking as their main mode of transport.

In 2023, the BMC had published the ‘Universal Footpath Policy,’ following up on its pedestrian-first policy that was launched in 2016. It laid down some points such as how footpaths should be connected and continuous, and on both sides of a road. The height of the kerb should not be more than 6 inches, a minimum width of 1.2 meter for wheelchairs, and 1.5 meters for two-directional flow should be maintained, with exceptions in restrictive conditions.
“Pedestrians need to be given priority in a city, and footpaths need to be usable for that. As this is not the case, pedestrians end up using the carriageway to walk, which is unsafe for them and causes traffic problems,” Abhijit Bangar, additional municipal commissioner, said. Bangar elaborated a provision for footpaths in the budget would be carried year-on-year, so incremental improvements are made in each area. This would gradually make a difference in the entire city, even if it takes years.
The specifications that will be followed to improve footpaths will be based on the standards by Indian Roads Congress (IRC), he said. For instance, if a footpath must end, it will not end abruptly but with a slope, so that it is accessible to wheelchair-users and senior citizens. Similarly, the height of a footpath should not be more than 6 inches high, he explained.
Vedant Mhatre, project manager at the Walkability Project, shared his views about the policy, “The overarching statement is that similar circulars and policies have been issued by the BMC before. Even assuming that the Universal Footpath Policy is a good and adequate policy document, which we don’t believe it is, its effectiveness will remain limited unless the BMC undertakes necessary administrative restructuring, invests in sufficient manpower for implementation, and addresses critical allied issues such as build quality assurance, hawker management, and parking management—all of which play a huge role in diminishing the quality of the walking experience in Mumbai. Without these efforts, much of the policy will remain on paper—or worse, funds will continue to be spent on infrastructure that directly violates the BMC’s and national level policies, as has been happening on a massive scale across the city over the past two years.”

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