Retrofitting a "Planned" City in Mumbai

Navi Mumbai was a planned community built in the 1960s to reduce congestion in the city. The design catered only to the rich, with a golf course and upscale residential development. With a mandate to get more diverse, Navi Mumbai is at a loss.

1 minute read

May 21, 2010, 11:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur


Karthik Rao Cavale, a "lapsed engineer", looks at the possibilities for improving Navi Mumbai with bicycle and transit infrastructure.

Cavale writes, "What distinguishes the case for cycling infrastructure is that this is low-hanging fruit. Unlike their counterparts in Mumbai, train stations in Navi Mumbai already have a great deal of parking space that often goes empty. Diverting some of that space to cycle parking with a metal sheet on top would cost next to nothing. Even the roads in Navi Mumbai are rather wide and relatively under-used. Which means less political opposition to diverting some of that space for cycles by creating a cycle lane."

Thanks to Erica

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 in TheCityFix Mumbai

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