BMC to finally fix your pavements

Expect dilapidated footpaths in your neighbourhood to improve soon. The Brihanmum-bai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided, for the first time, to make available a budget for this in 2012-13. The decision comes a month after HT launched a campaign to push the authorities to improve footpaths in your city.

Expect dilapidated footpaths in your neighbourhood to improve soon. The Brihanmum-bai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided, for the first time, to make available a budget for this in 2012-13. The decision comes a month after HT launched a campaign to push the authorities to improve footpaths in your city.

HT Image

Additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta told HT: “We can’t disclose the sum but footpath improvement will be one of our top priorities. We want to make our footpaths pedestrian-friendly,” he said.

To ensure that the work is of top quality, the BMC will ask the roads department to take direct charge, instead of leaving it to the respective ward offices, which have been criticised for shoddy maintenance of the 4,000 footpaths in the city and suburbs.

Pavements in Mumbai are either badly maintained, encroa-ched upon or are simply missing. In a series of reports from October 8, HT had revealed how these footpaths were in bad shape even after Rs131 crore had been spent on them in the last five years.