WITH THE death of Rajalakshmi Ramkrishnan in an accident while on her morning run near Worli Dairy on Sunday, runners and joggers in Mumbai have demanded events such as ‘open street weekends’ to facilitate a safe environment for the community, along with more running parks and tracks dedicated to long-distance running, far and safe from traffic. Ramkrishnan, a Dadar resident and CEO of Altruist Technologies, was a trained runner and part of a fitness club from Shivaji Park in Dadar, according to runners’ groups from the area, who said she also trained occasionally for marathons. ‘Open streets’ was a concept briefly implemented in Mumbai before the pandemic, where designated streets across the city were made traffic free for specific hours on Sunday mornings. This made streets accessible to pedestrians, joggers, cyclists and families looking to soak in the outdoors. Mumbai residents are increasingly taking up running for physical exercise. However, open spaces in the city used by such groups, are being claimed, over the past three years, by construction projects such as the erstwhile Worli sea face and parts of Marine Drive. Even places with cultural, heritage and environmental significance, such as Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Shivaji Park, are no longer encroachment free, say joggers, which sullies the experience of long distance running. “Running is a very easy lifestyle sport for those of us who have full-time jobs and commitments. The exercise is investment-free, as it takes care of several aspects of exercise such as cardio and muscle toning. We, as in Mumbai's joggers, prefer to jog in groups so we can watch out for the other. This has become a form of networking and socialising for many of us," according to Deepak Oberoi, founder of Bombay Running. Oberoi, 38, has been running for over 20 years, and founded Bombay Running in 2017 for runners to connect with each other. However, running daily in a city like Mumbai is also painstaking. "There is no safety gear made especially for running, of the kind available to cyclists for example. When we run on Mumbai roads, we follow basic rules such as running against the flow of traffic so we can watch oncoming vehicles. But such incidents do discourage runners from taking to streets, and there are very few other spaces in the city where one can run everyday," Ashok Joshi said. Now 70, Joshi, who was a runner for about 40 years, stopped running two years ago due to lack of space and safety. After construction work began in Mumbai, runners have changed course and routine to adapt to changing streets. Ajay Lulia, 47, a runner from Malad, said, "The city has many long distance professional runners. We sometimes run from Malad to Shivaji Park, which is a 21-km run, in the early hours on weekends, and can cover the span in 40 minutes or so." "Long distance runners have changed course, choosing to do laps instead of covering the distance. So we stick to routines such as Malabar Hill and Ballard Pier, instead of running between Marine Drive and the Worli Sea face in one stretch," Oberoi said. Firoza Suresh, who was designated cycle mayor of Mumbai, and is also a runner, said, "There needs to be more monitoring, which the government can do very easily. The concept of open street weekends can be brought back, where there is more monitoring and better safety for runners."
