MUMBAI, Sept. 18 -- The city's footpaths may be getting a "Pedestrian First" push from the BMC, but on the ground, pedestrians are still being squeezed into narrow strips of space. Hawker stalls, parked vehicles, garages, cattle sheds, pipes and even accumulated mud have eaten into footpaths across several high-footfall stretches visited by HT. In some locations, less than half of the designated pedestrian space remains usable; in others, the entire footpath has been taken over. Under its relaunched "Pedestrian First" campaign, the BMC has identified 320 km of footpaths to be cleared of encroachments, including unauthorised hawkers and structures, parked vehicles and other obstructions. The civic body said it had acted on 134 stretches, covering about 197 km, by August 29. To test the claim on the ground, HT visited five locations around railway and metro stations and measured footpath widths and usable pedestrian space using a handheld laser distance meter. The exercise examined the actual space available to pedestrians and documented obstructions along the stretches. At several locations, the space available for walking was substantially affected by objects and activities occupying the footpath. Rishi Agarwal, founder of the Walking Project, a citizen-led initiative seeking to reclaim Mumbai's streets for pedestrians, said much of the problem could be addressed by enforcing existing rules on footpaths, hawking and parking. He said illegal parking was a particularly serious problem for pedestrians and urged citizens to press elected representatives to ensure existing policies were implemented. The BMC has said that pedestrians account for nearly half of Mumbai's daily trips and that proper footpaths are a fundamental requirement. But the question that emerges following HT's ground exercise is whether the pedestrian-first push is translating into footpaths that pedestrians can actually use....