Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)'s plan to concretise footpaths across Mumbai is yet to take concrete shape, after it was announced in January. The BMC had said both 90 and 60-foot wide footpaths which were laid out with paver blocks would be concretised and the road would have marble chip finishing or brooming texture. Concrete footpaths were less expensive compared to paver blocks and easier to maintain, the BMC had claimed. Paver block footpaths are not very user-friendly, especially in the monsoon. The individual blocks get worn out or broken and rainwater accumulates in the cracks and when a pedestrian inadvertently steps on one of these, dirty water splashes on the pedestrian's clothes.
Uneven paver blocks also cause unwary pedestrians, especially senior citizens to trip and fall, harming life and limb. Outside Dadar station (west), which is also a terminus and is crowded throughout the day, all the paver blocks on the footpath are worn out. A resident of Vijay Nagar building, which is just across the station said: "In summer, there was no problem with these worn-out paver blocks but now that the rains are here, they have become very troublesome, as the dirty water splashes on people as they traverse these footpaths. Right outside the building gate, there are paver blocks which have been in a worn-out state for the past two-three years. What we have observed is these paver blocks get damaged within six months of their being laid out."
A resident of the Dattatreya Niwas building at Portuguese Church, Dadar said: "Senior citizens find it very difficult to walk on the uneven footpath as we are afraid of tripping and falling. So we then start walking on the main roads, risking our lives in traffic." BMC assistant commissioner, G-North, Kiran Dighavkar, said: "The standing committee has yet to approve the proposal, but after the new budget, it has been decided the work will start in July or August, on a ward-wise basis."