Mumbai and Shanghai

Just read that China has constructed a 55 Kms long sea bridge that connects the main land with Hong Kong and Macau. It’s the longest sea bridge in the world and like several other things Chinese, an Engineering marvel.

We sometimes hear the plans to make Aamchi Mumbai like Shanghai. Bandra-Worli sea link, a no less engineering marvel, took very long time and substantial cost overrun in getting constructed and though the original plan was to have a sea link from Borivali to Nariman Point, the other links viz. Borivali to Bandra and Worli to Nariman Point may never see the light of the day. We are now reading about coastal road from Borivali to Nariman Point, but given the challenges (green brigade, fishermen, slums, land acquisition, court intervention) , when an ordinary Mumbaikar will be able to savour the benefits, only the God almighty knows!

To give the due to the present Government, the work on Metro corridors is praiseworthy, though next couple of years will be hellish and commuters’ nightmare. Moreover, given the size of Mumbai’s population and it’s severe size constraints, the above drive gives you a feeling of “too little, too late”.

Mumbai was once almost bereft of two wheelers, but now you can see two wheelers zig zagging all over, driving dangerously. Each day, the city adds more vehicles, making it amongst the densest (vehicles per square kilometre of road) places in the world. BEST is losing its sheen, efficiency, reliability, safety and punctuality and is surviving on oxygen supply by the Govt. Mumbai locals carry passengers who are dangerously perched on the footboards, living by razor’s edge each day. Monorail project is complete but for some reason lying abandoned. Metro is still at least 2 years away.

This is the treatment meted out to residents of the highest tax paying city of the country. Don’t make our Mumbai Shanghai- at least restore the past glory of this historic and fabulous megapolis.