Articles by Sabah Virani

On the eve of 7th September, 11:00 pm, Aarti Aggarwal Gupta was alerted about a cat stranded on the parapet of the 4th floor of her building. For the next 3 hours, efforts to rescue the animal were in full swing. Shukri - the cat - had slipped into an open house and on being shooed, jumped out of the window. She landed on the ledge directly below. At first, Aarti, her husband and a watchman attempted to call the cat to safety. After several unsuccessful attempts, they decided to contact the BMC disaster management helpline, 1916. https://youtu.be/neaJCsIg7mM A fire…

In part 1 of the story, we wrote about how citizens partnered with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to create three new public spaces for the city, despite the limited framework available for doing so. And while these changes are a step towards greater change, Mumbai still has an abysmal 1.24 sqm of open space per person.  The Development Plan 2034, drafted by the BMC, aims to increase this from 3,798 acres to 8,710 acres. A big chunk of this - around 200 acres - is expected to come from the land reclaimed as part of the Coastal Road Project.…

The coveted St. Stephen Steps, Mahim beach and the Malabar Hills Forest Trail have much in common. Not so long ago, they used to be wastelands: covered in piles of garbage, overgrown with weeds and crumbling infrastructure. Then, a group of citizens decided to change it.  Today they are on their route to becoming, potentially, popular public spaces in the city. Their natural beauty is an open invitation for moments of pause, play and leisure. After months of lockdown, these projects offer some hope for residents, desperately looking for open space in a city as cramped as Mumbai.   Mahim Reti…

Mumbaikars have multiple avenues for lodging complaints to civic authorities. The toll-free number 1916, MCGM website, MyBMC 24*7 mobile application and even written complaints form the centralised complaint registration system (CCRS).  Through a SAP (a data management software for enterprise and resource planning) interface, the complaint gets routed to an officer in charge of the particular department in the complainant's ward. The complaint can then be tracked, escalated and given feedback on.  However, this process has faced several glitches in the recent past. So much so that residents have begun using social media instead to draw the attention of the…