The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) in collaboration with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) has started the interim transformation at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) intersection. Under BIGRS, the MCGM and Mumbai Traffic Control Branch (MTCB), with the support of the National Association of City Transportation Officials - Global Designing Cities Initiative (NACTO - GDCI), is carrying out this transformation work to increase pedestrian safety while making traffic flow more efficient, around the busy transportation hub.
This transformation is part of the ongoing effort by the MCGM and MTCB, under BIGRS, to reduce road crashes, injuries and deaths. BIGRS was initiated in 2015 after an MoU was signed between the Government of Maharashtra and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Since then, there has been a 22 per cent reduction in road crash deaths.
The transformation was announced way back in November 2018, when Janette Sadik-Khan, Principal, Bloomberg Associates, and former Commissioner at New York City Department of Transportation, visited Mumbai and the MCGM endorsed the Global Street Design Guide (GSDG). Using guidelines from the GSDG and several rounds of an on-site traffic study and data collection, NACTO-GDCI developed the redesign for CSMT through several rounds of discussions with the City government agencies.
The aesthetics of the design have been aligned with the goals of the Heritage Committee, respecting the historic nature of this site. This redesign process culminated with a re-visualization of the intersection that capitalizes on unused spaces to make the streetscape safer for all road users. A few variations of this visualization are shown below.