The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation wants to replicate its project to beautify Fort’s MG Road across the city by standardising street and shop signs, as well as street furniture. Assistant commissioners have been asked to identify stretches in their wards to carry it out. Work on the MG Road pilot project is still under way.
Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi had called for a meeting of senior civic officials to discuss measures to improve the cityscape. The meeting saw a presentation on the MG Road beautification project wherein a stretch of the road will have uniform signages, better footpaths, trimmed trees, standardised bus stops and lamp poles, among other things. The Commissioner directed officers to undertake similar measures in their respective wards.
“The discussion was primarily about how to improve the quality of footpaths, including the use of stamped concrete, and ensuring they are free of hawkers. The Commissioner also asked us to ensure street signs are uniform and of international standards, that they should have the name of the road and additional information about the area. Lamp posts can be dual-sided to ensure they give adequate lighting to both sides. Besides, in the city, there are multiple poles for CCTV cameras, traffic lights and street lights. We want to explore if we can have a single pole for all these,” said a civic officer who attended the meeting.
The Commissioner has also asked officers if they can have uniform signages for shops with specific instructions on size, fonts and colour of their boards. This has been done at MG Road but the move may be met with resistance.
“We have been asked to find a stretch of road where this can be done. Yes, shop owners want to stand out from the rest but if all shops have the same signage, everybody is on equal ground. We will try to implement it in heritage areas to start with,” said an assistant municipal commissioner.
Mr. Pardeshi also wants to include municipal data on Google Maps if possible. “The Commissioner wants to check if it is possible to show municipal buildings, gardens, properties, roads and other utilities on Google Maps. Right now, we have our mobile application called One GIS, which has this information, but it is not very popular with citizens. If this is done, all information will be available to users on Google Maps,” said another BMC officer.
