‘Shanghai’ remains a far-fetched dream for Mumbai

Mumbai is the city of dreams. Policy makers and politicians saw a dream for the city that it will become Shanghai of India but the poor implementation of the programs and infrastructure deficit in the financial capital is the biggest bottle-neck in realising the dream

Like the last few years, 2018 has been a good year for infrastructure growth in Mumbai. The metro railway which should have been available at least a decade ago will be completed only by 2025. But the speed at which it is being constructed, makes one think that unlike other projects, this might actually get completed on time. There is already an investment of approximately of 30,000-40,000 crore in the under construction metro rail projects. Three more metro rail projects were approved this year by the authorities in and around Mumbai. Though they face a little inconvenience now, most mumbaikars know that once these metro lines along north-south and east-west corridors are operational, it will help people travel faster to their destinations and so are putting up with issues like traffic jams.The railways too have finally woken up to the need for capacity augmentation and are now implementing the projects that were approved more than a decade ago. Central Railway has started the Seawoods-Uran rail line which connects the suburbs of Ulwe and other areas near the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport to Mumbai. Construction of foot over bridges, escalators and lifts are being fast-tracked since the Prabhadevi (earlier called Elphinstone Road) railway station stampede case. Passenger amenities are also being given a priority but what this system lacks is its empathy to deal with the deaths on railway tracks. Until last year there were 8 deaths a day on the railway line with most deaths occurring in the suburban areas. The number of deaths did come down in 2017. In comparison to 3,304 accidental deaths in 2015 and 3,202 in 2016, there were 3,014 deaths in 2017 and one can only hope that this year’s consolidated figures which will be released in a few months, would have some more reduction but the dream project of railways to build boundary walls along the railway tracks to prevent trespassing will take many more years to complete at the speed at which it is going. To reduce deaths, emergency medical centres and placement of ambulances at various important stations was also done after court orders.Apart from starting to use social media to reach out to passengers in a big way, there were many cleanliness campaigns that were undertaken to clean up dirty railway stations and some of these places have actually started to show effect. Of course such projects can succeed only with public partnership so awareness campaigns too are being put in place.Other projects like the construction of the 12000 crore coastal road project, amidst controversies, have also begun. The bullet train project too seems to be seeing the light of the day with construction work reported starting from Gujarat.Amidst the number of different agencies working on their projects, one problem that constantly plagues and hurts mumbaikars is the lack of coordination between different agencies. This year during monsoon, mumbaikars had the worst of roads, packed with pot holes that were not just back-breaking but even led to deaths of more than five people in Thane and Navi Mumbai areas. Not just this, when a part of the road over bridge on the Western Railway line at Andheri came crashing down in July killing and injuring people in, Mumbai was one again reminded about the crumbling infrastructure.

Immediately the authorities undertook surveys to deal with all bridges that were facing corrosion. Total of 298 structures were inspected and the authorities realised that 125 needed repairs. Since July, the bridge outside the Lower Parel railway station has been closed for vehicles and pedestrians and this has been leading to unending traffic snarls in the heart of Central Mumbai. Sion flyover that connects Eastern and Central suburbs to South Mumbai will now be closed for some major repairs starting this year end and will go on till April next year. These repairs are patchwork across the city but one can imagine the snail’s pace at which the local authorities take decisions, by just looking at what is happening with the said bridge at Andheri, a part of which had collapsed in July. The immediate reason for the collapse was said to be too many utilities being loaded on to the bridge by different agencies. The surveyors have concluded that the Andheri Bridge over the railway track is beyond repairs but months have gone by and even now, the portion of the bridge that had not collapsed is being used by pedestrians as well as light motor vehicles.

Apart from transportation projects, there is one big issue that Mumbai has been grappling with and that is the issue of availability of water for the ever growing population of the city. The city residents are already facing water cuts of about 10 per cent much before the summer season even sets in. Against the demand of 4200 million litres of water per day, mumbaikars get 3,800 million litres of water and now it will reduce by 10 per cent.
This is certainly not new. Mumbai has seen water supplies being cut in 2009, 2014 as well as in 2015 and the reduction varied with the amount of rainfall that the 7 lakes that meet the water needs have received. Like solid waste management, the city authorities have failed in imposing rainwater harvesting as one conditions while granting construction permission to builders. Thus there is an ever increasing dependency on the lakes around Mumbai.

The construction of the Navi Mumbai airport which has begun is on in full swing though protest by villagers has delayed the project. By this year end the blasting of hills and levelling of the ground is scheduled to be completed. But once the airport is ready by 2020, it will significantly ease the air traffic above Mumbai airport which is one of the busiest airports in the world.

The ailing Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Corporation (BEST) which transports passengers across Mumbai has seen its ridership reducing by the day literally, and has finally woken up to the need of installing GPS on its buses. The installation work is set to be completed this year and from next year on passengers will be able to track the position of their buses across the city.

One of the reports released by McKinsey Global Institute on city infrastructure earlier this year had rated Mumbai much worse than even Latin American and African metros in adoption of technology for betterment of lives of its people. According to an estimate by them, Mumbai would need an investment of 14,74,000 crore or 14.74 trillion in hard infrastructure and smart technology over the next 20 years to be ready for the future. Some food for thought!