Bullet Train or Basic facilities?

Bullet train will be good for India as it will take our nation into a select league of advanced nations that can boast of having bullet train! It will reduce distances, bring cities and people closer and would be a step in the field of technological feats of our nation. To this extent, my views are at variance with set of people viewing Government’s bullet train plans with circumspection.

However, today I came across heart wrenching news items that have brought me closer to the thought process of aforesaid Group of circumspect people. The first is death of 3 workers who died while cleaning sewer line in Dombivli. A deadly mix of filth and noxious gases from the untreated chemical discharge by certain plants in that area snatched three poor family breadwinners from their respective families. In which advanced country is the sewer cleaning process manual that risks the lives of such workers? The second news was about the death of a father -son duo of welders who died after falling down from a multi storey Versova building where they were fixing window grille.

Yesterday, we read about a volunteer enroute the proposed Shivaji statue site dying when the boat carrying the group capsized in Arabian Sea. The Amritsar train tragedy on Dussehra and the recent events of collapse of Majerhat and Andheri bridges in Kolkata and Mumbai respectively are fairly fresh in everyone’s memory.

When our fire brigade is ill equipped to fight infernos in sky rises, police is armed with redundant equipment, hospitals are in miserable condition, roads are God forsaken, public transport is crumbling, traffic situation is pitiable and all our airlines are bleeding white, bulletproof train indeed looks a luxury that India needs the least at this juncture. Mumbai needs flyovers, sea links, local transport, airport, good roads, slum clearance and basic cleanliness much much ahead of bullet train. Let’s build our metro and resume our white elephant Monorail first before even dreaming about bullet train!