Residents of Breach Candy have created a BMC Footpath Report Card to track recurring encroachments, assign responsibility and record whether municipal action is completed on the ground. The initiative has been submitted to the municipal commissioner as a possible model for use across Mumbai’s wards.
The report card was prepared by members of the Breach Candy Residents Forum and Breach Candy ALM, representing more than 750 families. It records the affected footpath stretch, the nature of the obstruction, the action required, the department responsible and the target date for completion.
The initiative follows continuing concerns over unusable pedestrian space in the area despite the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Pedestrians First initiative. Residents have listed hawkers and kiosks blocking footpaths, parked vehicles, broken or uneven pavements, permanent structures, open drains, garbage, construction material and inadequate walking space among the problems to be documented. Streetlight-related issues and other obstructions are also included.
For Bhulabhai Desai Road, residents have divided the road into identifiable sections, including the stretches from Croma to the L&T site, the L&T site to Cymroza Art Gallery, Cymroza to Anand Bhawan and Anand Bhawan to Swaminarayan Mandir. The division is intended to link each complaint to a specific location rather than treating the road as a single unresolved stretch.
A resident said the road currently has virtually no usable footpath space and that new footpaths are scheduled to be constructed from October 2026. The resident said the new infrastructure would not achieve its purpose unless encroachments were removed and adequate space was designated for licensed hawkers in accordance with BMC guidelines.
The residents’ letter said that recording action taken by the local ward office and submitting it to senior authorities could create a formal accountability trail. It called for documentation showing what action was taken, against whom and whether the encroachment had been permanently removed.
A civic official said such documentation was already part of the BMC’s process. According to the official, photographs are taken whenever action is carried out, while notices are issued wherever required before enforcement. The official also said the civic body was making efforts to prevent those targeted by enforcement from returning to the same locations and recreating the problem.
The report card therefore places the focus on the continuity of enforcement, rather than on individual clearance drives. Its proposed records are intended to connect complaints, municipal departments, deadlines and follow-up verification for specific footpath stretches.
The residents have submitted the model to the municipal commissioner. The proposed October 2026 footpath construction on Bhulabhai Desai Road is the next stated infrastructure milestone cited in the report.
