Colaba's Footpaths Must Belong To Its Foot Soldiers First
By Gajanan Khergamker
For decades, navigating the historic veins of South Mumbai - from the vibrant stretch of Colaba Causeway to the quiet residential enclaves of Strand Road, the chaotic maze of Colaba Market, and the inner residential lanes - has been less an act of pedestrian transit and more an exercise in spatial survival. For the city’s most vulnerable, particularly senior citizens and differently-abled residents, the simple act of taking a walk has long evolved into a hazardous gamble against crumbling pavers, encroaching vagrants, open potholes, haphazard construction debris, and aggressive commercial encroachments by hawkers.
Where smooth, unhindered footpaths ought to serve as safe conduits for everyday mobility, pedestrians have been systematically forced off broken curbs directly into the path of speeding vehicular traffic. "It is a daily obstacle course just to reach the local chemist," shares Colaba resident and senior citizen Gemma Martin. "The footpaths are either usurped by unauthorised stalls or broken into pieces. At our age, a single fall on an unlevel paver block means a broken hip and months in bed, so we are forced to walk on the busy main road alongside cars."
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| Octogenarian Gemma Martin fears a fall on Colaba’s broken paver blocks and encroached footpaths |
This systemic neglect hits those with mobility challenges hardest. Wheelchair-bound Ramesh Kadam, another local, describes the reality of navigating the area. "There is not a single continuous, accessible stretch anywhere along the Causeway or near the market. Between steep illegal steps built by shops, parked bikes on the pavement, vagrants peppered along the way, and hawkers blocking every inch, the footpath simply doesn't exist for someone like me. We are completely invisible to urban planners."
Illegal hawkers, unchecked commercial spill-overs, and unauthorised double-parking have effectively reduced civic infrastructure to a commodity auctioned off to the highest informal bidder. However, the tide is finally turning - not by chance, but through sustained legal and civic advocacy.
For nearly two decades, campaigns spearheaded by media and legal research think tank DraftCraft International has persistently highlighted the systemic neglect of Mumbai's pedestrian infrastructure. By framing pedestrian access not merely as a civic amenity but as an imperative of fundamental human rights, public pressure has systematically built a case against institutional apathy.
This persistent push has found its ultimate validation at the highest level of Indian jurisprudence. The Supreme Court of India's stance affirming that the Right to Walk forms an intrinsic component of the fundamental Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India marks a watershed moment. A pavement is no longer a negotiable strip of urban asphalt; it is a constitutionally protected public space. Legal principles, no matter how elevated, require executive will to become street-level reality.
The recent directives issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Ashwini Bhide - mandating that footpaths across the city, starting with high-density hubs like Colaba, be cleared of illegal hawking and unauthorised encroachments - signal a long-overdue shift in administrative priorities. Pavements must be designated strictly for foot traffic, accessibility standards for senior citizens and wheelchair users must be strictly enforced, and local ward offices must ensure continuous vigil against re-encroachment.
Reclaiming Colaba’s historic lanes is not about targeting individual livelihoods; it is about restoring order, safety, and constitutional rights to a city that has too long ignored its foot soldiers. When an elderly resident or a disabled citizen can walk from their doorstep to the neighbourhood market without fear of tripping into a pothole or being squeezed into vehicular traffic by illegal stalls, the law truly serves its purpose.
Change in urban governance is often slow, but with legislative clarity, judicial mandate, and executive action aligning at last, the liberation of Mumbai's footpaths is both inevitable and welcome.
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