Mumbai’s advantageous location should not be taken for granted. If corrective measures are not taken early, the city will have to be put into the ICU

Mumbai is very advantageously located. Although surrounded by sea, the surrounding land areas are forested and hilly, ideal to impound large quantity of 2,500mm to 4,500mm annual rainfall. It still has not fully exploited the region’s potential. Being forested land and not agricultural, water in the region is pesticide-free. Being on the sea coast, it is endowed with sea-breeze that carries away the polluted air. At one time a manufacturing hub, it is now a metropolis with growing service sector activities. Income levels are rising and so are aspirations of owning a motorcar and an air-conditioned home.

Although the rate of growth of Mumbai population is quite low, the base population being large, the actual addition is significant. Meeting its basic necessity such as water is not such a problem; however transmission losses and uneven distribution makes a mockery of managing abilities. Waste water is incompletely treated before putting it out into the sea and solid wastes are allowed to get accumulated at different places at different times, except for the privileged south Mumbai, it is a matter of concern and frustration.

There are all kinds of violations taking place on roads and the police seem to be in short numbers! Is that really so? If the beat-marshals went on foot or bicycles on their beats randomly round the clock and nabbed the violators, there would be less violations of law and the police force would not be stretched and spend much energy curbing night-life and do moral policing in the space-starved housing. Brothers grow up from childhood into adulthood in a chawl room with their parents who cannot afford another room to bring up their respective families. A little romance in the twilight is frowned upon because the law says so. But private parties going late at night with loud music and impatient honking by party-goers is not looked at. A walking or cycling beat needs to be reintroduced.

Except for the very miniscule proportion, perhaps barely 10,000 of Mumbaikars who gets into the personal car soon after coming down the lift and gets into a lift on reaching office, every other Mumbaikar walks short to long distances while commuting to work or going for entertainment or socializing or go round the corner to a shop. And there are more Mumbaikars using bicycles than number of users of personal motor cars. Their safety and convenience must be central to any mobility plan for Mumbai. However, it is quite the opposite.

The fire at Mantralaya on 21 June 2012, when five persons lost their lives, the government showed much concern, how about showing serious concerns for the daily 10-12 deaths on railway system and 2-3 on Mumbai roads.

When will authorities understand that Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) will not only address the crowd on the railway system but will also bring in mobility to people on the road and equally important, let fire engines, ambulances and security forces not get into traffic jams?

There is more to Mumbai than deteriorating transport, housing and open accessible public space issues and these are positives which make things tick. However, if main arteries get blocked, organs cannot function properly, what use will the “Mumbai Spirit” be of?
It is only hoped that when the patient Mumbai is taken into the ICU, hope that situation does not arise at all, a situation is not beyond repair that even when put on the ventilator, it does not respond.

The current transport infrastructure projects that have been taken up with the vision to provide the much needed solution to transportation woes and are under implementation will be so delayed in completion that their even inadequate capacity will be nothing but waste of money and unnecessary additional hardship to Mumbaikars over a long period without providing relief at the end.

Unless the Mumbaikar shows his anger now and demands that low-cost quickly implementable infrastructure that gives priority to walking, cycling and the BRTS, emphasizing on mobility of people and not just motor vehicles, Mumbai will have to go into ICU with one-way ticket.

Hope is seen when the Government of Maharashtra declared that 20% of area under development will have to be for low-cost housing at that site itself and handed over to the government for allocation in the vision to make the city slum-free. Hope the government looks beyond the Metro Rail in addressing transportation problem of Mumbai.

(Sudhir Badami is a civil engineer and transportation analyst. He is on Government of Maharashtra’s Steering Committee on BRTS for Mumbai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s Technical Advisory Committee on BRTS for Mumbai. He is also member of Research & MIS Committee of Unified Mumbai Metropolitan Transport Authority. He was member of Bombay High Court appointed erstwhile Road Monitoring Committee (2006-07). While he has been an active campaigner against Noise for more than a decade, he is a strong believer in functioning democracy. He can be contacted on email at [email protected])