Infrastructure

A safe, convenient and joyous walking environment continues to elude the Mumbaikar. Reducing the stress in walking will enhance business competitiveness that is ultimately central to the city's existence. Benchmark for a good footpath within Mumbai at Veer Nariman (Photo: Walking Project) Residential areas, transit hubs like railway stations or business districts are the primary areas where a lot of walking happens in a short distances. 1-2 square kilometre areas or 1-5 kilometres of road stretches could see millions of people make walking trips, from straight line walking to crossing the street. Unfortunately, this is where there are worst experiences.…

The woes faced by resettlement colonies in the grips of COVID-19 and the impact of the lockdown has been immense. Issues highlighted in the past -- such as shortfalls in adequate, livable housing for those evicted from their original settlements -- have only been heightened by COVID-19, as our earlier article illustrated. Yet another stark fact is that women, children and disabled individuals face added burdens as a result of the way such housing is designed.  The feminisation of poverty COVID-19 and the lockdown has placed an enormous burden on the women in resettlement colonies. Managing the household, ensuring cleanliness…

Children are often under-prioritized or even disregarded in urban planning and design. It’s estimated that up to 500 children die daily in road crashes around the world; thousands more incur injuries and psychological trauma from collisions with vehicles that can affect them for years. Whether on the streets or in public spaces, feeling unsafe or uncomfortable in outdoor spaces also discourages children from physical exercise at a time when 80% of children between ages 11-17 are not physically active, and 38 million children under age five are overweight or obese. The coronavirus pandemic has further highlighted the urgent need for safe outdoor areas for…

Five or more people cooped up for 24 hours in a room 10x10 sq ft. The children barely catch a sliver of the sky above their heads. The women deprived of any kind of interaction with their neighbours and friends, which had been the only respite from their usual grueling, monotonous domestic schedules. The men, caught in the confines of four walls 24x7, more dour and impatient than usual. As the spread of COVID-19 and the effort to curb it resulted in India enforcing one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, this was the reality for thousands of families…

Nirmohi Kathrecha, a graduate from the School of Environment and Architecture (SEA), is concerned about Mumbai's outfall levels - points where the city's drains or sewers empty into the Arabian Sea. The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) predicts a sea-level rise of 0.5 metres by 2051. “This means that Mumbai's outfall points will be below the sea level or the high-tide line,” Kathrecha says. “A backflow of water from the sea could submerge us.” The information is alarming. Kathrecha grew up in Mumbai’s Gorai region where torrential rain and flooding is routine. But solutions for flood mitigation, critical due…

On August 27, a portion of a three-storied building collapsed in Nagpada. Two people, including a 12-year-old girl, were killed. The building was dilapidated and had long standing plans to be redeveloped. Despite the collapse, residents refused to vacate the building. “They kept saying that our part of the building is fine and we will continue to stay here. They didn’t want to shift to transit camps in distant suburbs. The fire brigade and the civic authorities had to disconnect their water and electricity connections to get them to vacate their building,” said Amin Patel, local legislator from Mumbadevi constituency,…

In 2018, 30,000 slum dwellers from the Tansa pipeline area and those affected due to the Brihanmumbai Stormwater Disposal System project were moved to Mahul, an industrially polluted area in the east of Mumbai. After uninterrupted citizen protests from August 2018 to September 2019, the High Court ordered the Maharashtra Government to rehabilitate residents or pay them Rs 15,000 monthly rent and Rs 45,000 deposit to find accommodation elsewhere. For a city known for incomplete or uninhabitable slum-redevelopment projects, this sounded like an interesting move. If implemented, it wouldn’t have been different from the model of “housing choice vouchers” where…

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report of 2019 indicates that every day, 35 people die due to fire accidents in India, with over half being home fires. Fires in high rises are not very common, but they almost always make it to the media headlines because of the damage they cause. Fire safety in apartment complexes is usually not on the list of priorities of either the builder or the flat owners. This is because fire safety systems do not impact our day-to-day lives, unlike water pipes, lifts, lighting, landscaping, garbage, drainage, etc. When a fire breaks out beyond…

Waterlogging in Mumbai is an annual affair, met with cynicism and apathy. The city’s insufficient drainage system, unsustainable urbanisation, reduction of green cover and natural barriers are enlisted among the top reasons for the floods.  But this information is often too dense or inadequate to understand why citizens can’t spend one monsoon without wading through (and living in) murky rainwater mixed with sewage and solid waste. Citizen Matters explains:   Let’s begin with the topography of the city. Welded together through land reclamation, the city is shaped like a saucer. It has low lines of hills on either sides: Malabar Hill…

Having set a four-year time-frame to achieve the target of 25 per cent electrification of new vehicle fleet in Delhi, the Arvind Kejriwal government may have just bitten off more than it can chew. Despite the slew of incentives offered -- waiver of registration fee and road tax and subsidy of Rs 1.5 lakh for new electric cars and up to Rs 30,000 for electric two-wheelers, e-rickshaws and freight vehicles, widespread public acceptance of electric vehicles is uncertain. Though the e-vehicle policy announcement on August 7th, based on wide-ranging consultations with experts from across the country and study of EV policies…