Not in step: Pavements in Thane not a patch on those in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai

THANE: Even though the civic body has undertaken a string of road widening projects to help ease traffic congestion, the officials have completely forgotten about pedestrians and well paved walkways are nowhere in sight. However, neighbouring cities like Mumbai and Navi Mumbai fare much better than the lake city.
A walk down the internal roads of the city—be it the Thane market area or the stretch at Kopri and Ram Maruti Road—the pavements are either encroached upon by shopkeepers, beggars and vendors.Most of them are also uneven and not well paved, which may lead to injuring pedestrians.
Many times, animal waste and garbage is also found on the footpaths. So, this forces pedestrians in the city to always watch every step that they take. Due to the rains, the paver blocks are also covered with moss, making it slippery and difficult to walk.
Meanwhile, a survey carried out on the condition of footpaths in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai revealed that here many internal roads were pedestrian friendly and had 6-feet wide and well maintained pavements.
Be it the spacious footpaths at Andheri’s Lokhandwala Complex or the well-lit pathways on the interlinked lanes from Khar telephone exchange to Pali Naka, or even the broad footpaths from Dadar to Bandra, they all are free from encroachments and properly paved, encouraging residents to walk.
Jeremy Vaz, a resident of Mahim’s city-light area, said, “I start my day with a morning jog from Sena Bhavan all the way to Bandra reclamation and back as the entire stretch has a proper six to eight feet wide footpath to run on. I used to go to Shivaji park, but find it very crowded these days. So, as the footpaths are clean and not uneven, I prefer taking a walk on the footpath.”
Even Navi Mumbai is not far behind from Mumbai when it comes to well paved and broad footpaths. The civic body of the satelite township has gone a step ahead by not only interlinking each of its township with broad roads and pavements, but also they have enough green cover making the walk a coll and stress-free one.
Also, all the pavements have dustbins installed at every 200 meter stretch. Benches are also placed in case someone just wants to relax and breathe in the fresh air.
Some areas in Navi Mumbai, like the station area at Sanpada, has a double footpath. Vashi’s Sector 17, too, has 6-ft wide pavements .
“Our entire sector is connected with footpaths and we do not need to use our vehicle or an auto to go anywhere as we can just walk it down. If we fell like, we can also walk to the other sectors in Vashi as they are all connected. I sometimes use the footpaths and go walking up to the APMC market which is 1.2km away,” said Pooja Thakkar, a resident of Sector 17, Vashi.
Town planners in and around the city assert that this differentiation is mainly because of the quality of facilities provided by the civic body.
“There are no norms to build pavements according to the road size or population strength and it is all done arbitrarily by the corporations. However, as we can see the cities which have planned their infrastructure to not only suit the motorists, but also the pedestrians are better maintained than those who haven’t done so. Small infrastructural facilities like pedestrians can also help cut down vehicular count and reduce pollution as people will use the pavements instead,” said a Mumbai-based town planner.