The Walking Project — an advocacy group for pedestrian infrastructure in Mumbai — is organising a meet on Sunday (July 6) to discuss with local residents changes that are needed on the Swami Vivekananda Road.
The SV Road is an arterial road in Mumbai’s Western Suburbs which goes from Bandra to Dahisar, with around 31 junctions along the route, according to Walking Project. The road, at several locations, has either narrow or no footpaths, causing an inconvenience to those walking along the road. While the road covers an approximate distance of 25 km, the meeting on Sunday will focus on the stretch that lies in Goregaon.
The group aims to address this issue, to bring together public voices about the pedestrian infrastructure needed to make the road usable for all, and also aesthetically appealing. Rishi Agarwal, convener for the walking project, told mid-day, “Our goal with this meeting is to make sure the community gets a say in what is needed in the area.” He added, “South Mumbai has some really good footpaths. Being in the same city, we think that the suburbs also need to have the same.”
According to Agrawal, a uniform size and quality of footpaths would make the city a better place to travel in. In April, the Walking Project released its manifesto, highlighting things they wanted to work on. Regarding SV Road, it said: “Every day, countless residents traverse these roads to access railway stations, underscoring the urgent need to develop them into world-class pedestrian-friendly corridors.”
Agarwal also believes that we do not need to compare the roads of Mumbai with a foreign city like New York. “When we have really good road infrastructure in parts of our own city, we don’t need to compare ourselves with New York or some other foreign country. Just making our own roads uniform, with proper footpaths and smooth roads, would do wonders to beat the Mumbai traffic,” he said.
The meeting on Sunday would lead to discussions about having at least a 50-100 metre stretch of continuous proper footpaths, since any less than that would make pedestrians walk on the roads.
25KM
Approx distance SV Road covers
