28 June,2026 08:49 AM IST | Mumbai | Akshita Maheshwari
Sunday mid-day Editor Aastha Atray Banan (left) and Features Writer Akshita Maheshwari stand near the B1 exit of BKC Metro station, where the footpath is encroached by electric poles, mattresses, and squatters. The result: walk on the narrow road with the oncoming traffic. PIC/SHADAB KHAN
Imagine this: a father wakes up early in the morning, gets his kid dressed, and walks him over to school. On the way to school, the five-year-old gets hit by a truck and dies - all because there was no footpath where they were walking. "Who could have ever imagined that it would be the last walk with his son?" asked the Supreme Court last week, as it recognised the Right to Walk as a Fundamental Right derived from Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty) in its landmark judgment on the tragic incident in Karnataka.
The SC calls walking a fundamental right, but the city's infrastructure seems to say otherwise with its broken (or missing) footpaths. According to the road transport ministry's "Road Accidents in India" report, more than 30,500 pedestrians were killed on average every year between 2019 and 2024. Policy doesn't always mean implementation. So our team steps out in their rained-out neighbourhoods to show you the unwalkable streets of the city.
Walking to the Lower Parel station is like playing a game of luck. Which puddle will I step into? Which raggedly constructed road will my foot trip over? Even better, how many times will I have to avoid getting hit by the zooming two-wheelers?
Tanisha Banerjee struggles to walk at NM Joshi Marg in Lower Parel as there is no footpath there
That's the state of the entire route in Lower Parel, whether you go to the station or you go to the nearest Aqua Line Metro. On one side, it is bordered with all sorts of stores, so walking there will take you immense time and patience. On the other side, the footpaths have been fully encroached by hawkers, cigarette shops, vegetable sellers, and so on.
The roads, where both vehicles and people traverse on, are not well-maintained. There are rough patches everywhere and during the monsoon, you have to be prepared to ruin your shoes and trousers. Lower Parel is not for aesthetics and walks. It is a gamble in which you stand to lose your temper, and footing.
Debjani Paul struggles to walk her dogs in Aarey because of the lack of pedestrian safety
Every day, the green pocket of Aarey Colony sees scores of people out on the streets, either for their morning run or to walk their dogs. For a place that has so much pedestrian traffic though, there's not a pavement to be seen - not on the arterial road connecting Andheri and Powai ends to Goregaon, nor on the bylanes to residential complexes or to the vegetable market. The kaccha area by the road is covered with vegetation or debris, forcing pedestrians onto the road, competing with vehicular traffic for space. It's particularly scary for children and pets when vehicles rumble past them. Perhaps the density of trees won't allow footpaths on both sides - the roads are not very wide either - but surely the authorities can build a sidewalk to either side.
When we moved to Ulwe back in 2005 from Mumbai Central, we realised one thing - we could actually walk on the footpaths.
Arpika Bhosale finds that Navi Mumbai is largely walkable
Be it Vashi, Nerul, or now Ulwe, I love the walk I take from my home to the gymkhana. Of course, since the new airport opened in January, things have been chaotic, but you always have a place to walk in Navi Mumbai. A part of the footpath might be obstructed by a paan shop or some random piece of junk thrown by a lazy resident, but by and large, it's a walking city.
My 72-year-old mother who can't always hear well, is safe too, because there is always a footpath she can take if the market is too crowded. The footpaths are ideal for people who have dogs and want to walk them. So if people want to see a Mumbai where you can actually walk to the station or your gym, then move to Navi Mumbai - uh actually, it's quite crowded here already.
Akshita Maheshwari feels unsafe walking on footpaths in DN Nagar as they're surrounded by massive trucks, blocking any exit
At Idgah lane in DN Nagar, Andheri West, where I reside, the footpaths aren't too bad. On most days, one can navigate the neighbourhood on foot. The problem, however, is the parking system. Because of the incessant construction happening in the area, giant trucks are always parked beside footpaths. This creates large walls around the footpath, which are quite unsafe to walk at night because you're completely stuck inside. Besides, this makes footpaths the perfect place for people to pee in public, making them extremely unhygienic.
The walk from Mithanagar in Goregaon West to the Bangur Nagar metro station is fraught with impediments
I walk every day from my home in Mithanagar, Goregaon West, to the Bangur Nagar Metro station. It's an eight-minute distance, but I feel like Mario from the videogames of the '90s. I am hopping, skipping, and tripping over wet mattresses, gannas piled to be juiced, a men's barber, and beggers. Some footpaths are dark, and dingy, and hidden behind the cars parked on the road, and hence an open urinal. Some have thela workers cutting onions, and Metro users eating idly-wada. The footpaths were cleared for a while during elections, but they
are back to be unusable. Is anyone listening?
Experts explain why walkability is important and why the city isn't able to achieve it
Birds fly, fish swim, and humans walk," says Vedant Mhatre, programme director at The Walking Project, "It is one of the most fundamental things we do to get a sense of ourselves as humans." The Walking Project is a pedestrian rights advocacy campaign started in 2012.
Vedant Mhatre points to a traffic refugee island at Juhu circle which has been beautified, making it redundant as pedestrians can no longer take refuge on it. PIC/SATEJ SHINDE
The Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) is providing technical support to the BMC and the Mumbai Traffic Police to strengthen road safety efforts, reduce crash fatalities, and transform the city's streets into safer, pedestrian-friendly spaces. "For Mumbai, where more than 50 per cent of people travel on foot daily, this is a significant moment," says Akanksha Aggarwal, program manager for the sustainable cities and transport at WRI India (a partner under BIGRS), referring to the Supreme Court judgment.
In simple terms, "a walkable city is simply the one where anyone - a child, an elderly person, someone with a disability, can get around on foot safely and comfortably," Aggarwal explains, "But walkability goes beyond safety. Streets that work for people, reduce traffic, improve air quality, and make neighbourhoods more vibrant."
Shishir Joshi and Akanksha Aggarwal
Mhatre adds, "Walkability isn't just the presence of footpaths alone. There are many other factors. Are the footpaths wide enough? Is the neighbourhood designed to be walked through, or is it hostile and lacking things to do around it?"
He gives the example of BKC, "There are few things to do in BKC; some of the intersections are very wide and have huge turning radii, and as a result, vehicles move very fast."
When motorists have priority on roads, "a lot of decisions like short crossing time at signals or hostile intersection design, are taken purely by the traffic police to keep vehicles moving," Mhatre says, "Yet we've reached a saturation point of how many vehicles our roads can accommodate."
Smart design is the solution, according to Aggarwal. "Minimum interventions can lead to maximum impact using basic design principles and elements. The transformation of Sion Circle is a strong example of this," she says, referring to a project undertaken by BIGRS, "Median extensions on the three arms gave pedestrians a safe place to pause mid-crossing, significantly reducing risk especially for children and the elderly. Improvements across three locations have reclaimed nearly 170 square metres of space, with protected waiting areas, marked crossings, and clear signage."
But even when smart design is implemented, it is rarely maintained. One example is the city's traffic refuge islands - raised sections in the middle of large intersections where pedestrians can wait for their turn to cross the road, safe from fast-moving vehicles.
"But across the city, especially since the G20 summit, many of these refuge islands have been converted into beautification spots with lawns, plants, statues, and decorative elements," Mhatre says, "We've found 56 such locations in the city, and for 38 of them we have photographic evidence. In many cases, zebra crossings are literally marked leading into these landscaped islands."
Time and again, it is the public which is blamed for a lack of civic sense. "The challenges that Mumbai and its citizens have are: the constant rush and lack of time among most people, a fear to confront those breaking road rules, and a lack of empathy from the civic system," says Shishir Joshi, CEO of Project Mumbai, which is a citizen moment to make Mumbai a better city to live in, "We have seen time and again that if the civic system does want to make a difference - like clearing pathways to walk - that is surely possible. They hide behind the excuses of a âcrowded city' and the âignorance of citizens'."
Even when footpaths are built, they seem to be encroached by hawkers. "According to the Street Vendors Act, surveys are supposed to be conducted to determine how many hawkers the city has. According to Indian standards, hawkers should be allocated specific spaces on streets, and streets should be designed to integrate them," Mhatre says, "Right now, there has been very little effort from the BMC or MMRDA to understand how hawkers can be integrated into street design, as the Indian Roads Congress Guidelines prescribe."
Miscreants are the exception, says Mhatre, and most people want good systems to walk properly. "Take Nariman Point. Most people walk there on the footpaths. There is also decent pedestrian etiquette. If infrastructure is built to a high standard, you'll find that most people naturally use it correctly and follow rules."
When Dr Desai, who chose to not disclose her first name, saw a manhole erupting "like a volcano" outside her son's school in Powai during the monsoon of 2024, she decided she couldn't wait for someone else to act.
She recalls, "There's literally water shooting out of it [the manhole] like a fountain, and anybody could potentially get sucked into it. There are so many children around that area."
Outside Gate 7 of Sion Hospital, crossing Sion Circle is a dangerous endeavour as the circle becomes a blindspot for pedestrians. Pic/Special Arrangement
The school was Hiranandani Foundation School, and the flooding had become a recurring concern for parents. Fearing that a child could fall into the overflowing manhole, Dr Desai began contacting civic authorities. To her surprise, officials responded.
"The assistant commissioner of the Powai ward was very cooperative. He listened to me and, overnight, sent an entire BMC team to investigate why the area was flooding so badly," she says. The civic team decongested drains and gutters around the area, and the flooding was significantly reduced that year.
But while one battle was won, another continues. For more than a year, Dr Desai has been trying to get authorities to address a dangerous spot outside Gate 7 of Sion Hospital. Sion Circle, located near the doctors' residential hostel and connecting Sion, Matunga, and Dharavi, has no traffic signal despite heavy pedestrian movement.
Doctors crossing for night duty, patients heading to nearby chemists, and hospital visitors all navigate speeding traffic daily. She says, "All of us are essentially dodging traffic, dodging cars, risking our lives, and crossing our fingers, hoping we don't meet with an accident."
According to Dr Desai, the problem is worsened by a traffic circle that creates blind spots for pedestrians. She has escalated the issue to the Joint Police Commissioner, local police officials, and elected representatives. The only response she received was from the Matunga police, who informed her that an application for a traffic signal had been submitted.
More than a year later, nothing has changed. "There has been absolutely no response," Dr Desai says, "I've been trying for over a year in vain."
We got you!
From tomorrow, mid-day will be running their special campaign: My footpath, my right. Pick up a copy and join in.
30,500
Pedestrians were killed on average every year between 2019 and 2024
