The city's pavements and footpaths will now have stronger obstructions to prevent entry of vehicles. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), after being pulled up by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray over the footpaths being easily accessible by drivers to avoid traffic, has written to the infrastructure department saying stronger bollards need to be placed.

The chief minister and environment minister Aaditya Thackeray both have been asking the civic body to ensure a pedestrian-first Mumbai, but it is yet to be achieved. And thus, in a meeting with municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal last week, the CM instructed that the safety point of view of the pedestrians on promenades of Bandra, Worli and Marine Drive, should be checked thoroughly. It was following these instructions that the BMC has sprung into action to install more benches and bollards here. There were also suggestions over checking the elevation of the footpaths at Marine Drive which was to be done by the BMC officials so as to discourage motorist who could drive onto pavements, said civic body sources. Currently, it is common practice for two-wheeler drivers to enter footpaths to beat slow-moving traffic on roads.