With beauty, let’s strive for better civic facilities

The immediate civic projects should move from paper to action. The Middle Vaitarna Project, which promises to bring in 445 million litres daily, has been gathering dust for eight to 10 years, reports Sujit Mahamulkar.

What is the use of make-up when the body is riddled with various diseases?

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There is no doubt that Mumbai should look beautiful and needs a facelift as it is being projected as a global city.

But if the efforts are being made to make the city beautiful, there is also a need to see to it that the entire city has a sound civic infrastructure.

The immediate civic projects should move from paper to action. The Middle Vaitarna Project, which promises to bring in 445 million litres daily, has been gathering dust for eight to 10 years.

Now, lots of money will be spent on beautification but what about chronic problems such as encroached pavements, leaking water pipelines, overflowing dustbins, pot-holed roads and irregular water supply.

While we are spending money to maintain open spaces, we should simultaneously think of securing them from encroachers.

Like Nayana Kathpalia, co-convenor of Citispace said: “If there are no footpaths, what’s the point in installing street furniture? Ninety per cent of the city does not have footpaths. Clean and encroachment free pavements is the need of the city.”