The Concept – Open Streets, Open Communities
Walkers Street belongs to a global movement of open-streets and ciclovía programmes that began in Bogotá and has since spread to cities like Delhi (Raahgiri), New York, Melbourne, and Auckland. The idea is simple but transformative: for a few hours, close one stretch of city road to motor vehicles. Hand the street back to citizens. Watch what happens.
What happens is what happened in Raipur and Lucknow — children learn to cycle in safe public space, families take morning walks together, yoga and zumba classes spring up, local artists perform, food stalls run by self-help groups serve breakfast, and neighbours who pass each other in cars every day finally meet face to face.
Walkers Street Raipur
Walkers Street Raipur takes over a central city stretch on selected weekend mornings. The format is intentionally low-cost and community-led — no entry tickets, no commercial sponsorship dominating the space, no high-decibel sound systems. Rungreen's role is producing the operational backbone (barricading, traffic coordination, medical, sanitation) while the activities themselves are programmed in partnership with local clubs, schools, and civic groups.
Walkers Street Lucknow
In Lucknow, Walkers Street builds on the city's growing weekend fitness culture seeded by events like the Lucknow Run series. Open-street mornings in Lucknow have featured cycle parades, kids' chalk-art zones, classical dance demonstrations, walking tours of nawabi heritage, and outdoor yoga sessions. The event is free, open to all, and welcomes residents from every part of the city.
Why Open-Streets Programmes Matter for Indian Cities
- Public health: Free, accessible space for physical activity in an era of rising lifestyle disease
- Air quality: A small but symbolic reduction in vehicular emissions in dense urban cores
- Civic belonging: Restoring the street as a place to meet, not just to pass through
- Local economy: Visibility for street vendors, small businesses, and self-help groups
- Children's mobility: Safe car-free space for kids to cycle, skate, and play
Behind the Scenes – How Walkers Street Is Produced
- Coordination with traffic police for road closure permits
- Heavy-duty barricading at every entry point with police-supervised diversion
- Medical first-aid station and ambulance on standby
- Mobile toilet placement at strategic points along the open stretch
- Volunteer marshals every 100 m for crowd guidance
- Live PA announcements for activity zones and lost children
- Pre-event communication via social media, schools, RWAs, and local press
- Post-event street cleaning before reopening to traffic
Community Impact
Across multiple Walkers Street editions in Raipur and Lucknow, thousands of citizens have used these morning hours to walk, run, cycle, do yoga, or simply spend time outdoors with their families. The programme aligns with the Rungreen Foundation's mission of community fitness and aware citizenship.
Bring Walkers Street to Your City
Rungreen partners with municipal corporations, smart city missions, RWAs, and CSR sponsors to launch Walkers Street and similar open-streets programmes in cities across India. If you would like to bring this to your city or neighbourhood, our CSR and civic activation team can help design and execute the programme. Get in touch.
