The more you look at any city in India, you have to wonder where it’s headed with all the clumsy, lop-sided development with the flyovers and elevated metro lines. At the other extreme, drainage systems have crumbled, streets are occupied by encroachers, road congestion keeps getting worse and so does the population count. Gurgaon authorities have now hired gunmen to stop dumping of waste here and there. But every major city, metro and non-metro, is now like a garbage dump. Only two things seem to be positively growing without any control in India – Population and Corruption. Of all the metro cities, Mumbai is unique in nature and in a terribly bad position. Mumbai is a dying city and yet the govt and many residents behave as if it is some heaven on earth. Everywhere you look it has horrible crowds, congestion, stinking smells, potholes, floody roads, corruption and every month, every year it keeps getting worse. How can Mumbai be repaired?
Narendra Modi is a “Dehati Duffer”. A Village-Bumpkin. He goes abroad, sees fantastic airports, great metro-rails, great railway stations, bus-stations. And he tries to replicate that in India while ignoring all the other issues in India which create the mess in the first place. And in addition, Modi is the Queen of corruption. Corruption eats up all the development work on the infra front and destroys in a few months what took years to build. The very idea of Modi that more Metros and more flyovers will reduce congestion in cities is as moronic as the man himself. The main benefit passes to a few users and the contractors who make money and the BJP too makes money out of corruption. And then, like an idiot, Modi ribbon-cuts each of these items like he’s birthed a new baby with a non-existent wife. And after the ribbon-cutting he repeats the same moth-eaten lines “will ease congestion, promote tourism, promote commerce and Eej of living”. Modi neither has prudence nor vision for anything except mouthing filmy dialogues:
I don’t see much hope for Mumbai or India given the kind of uneducated, casteist, corrupt politicians we have. But I strongly believe, that if one does want to make a dramatic change in Mumbai or any part of India, it can indeed happen. Thus, though I don’t write much on these topics at this site, let us examine Mumbai in particular and what can be done to make dramatic changes in the lives of its residents and visitors. Since it will be long, this will be a multi-part series of blogs, so please read and continue patiently.
I have stated on SM that Bombay is my hometown being born at Thane. And though I curse it, I still have affection for it. My childhood was spent in many parts of Mumbai. My mother’s house is still at Dadar, opposite the broken down Portuguese church, just 700 metres from that “Kabutar Khana” which is in news these days. I have my siblings living in the suburbs of Mumbai and I keep visiting often for some reason or the other. So, for those who aren’t aware, a brief history of Mumbai would be in order. Mumbai is not a single piece of land. It was made up of 7 islands, some small, some large as shown in the images below:
Much of Mumbai as you know it today is reclaimed land that “stitched” up the islands into a wholesome piece although the distinctions will still be clear in a proper map. In the right-corner image, an “X” marks the spot that is the famous Marine Drive aka “Queen’s necklace” if you see it from a flight during the night-time. “Y” marks “Nariman Point” and “Z” marks “Gateway of India”. These are prominent landmarks that many are familiar with.
The original Bombay of the British didn’t extend beyond Dadar-Matunga (which are close to Parel). As you move up north past Mahim, you have Bandra, Santa Cruz, Andheri, Goregaon, Borivali on to Virar on the West and you have the Central Line going up to Thane and Kalyan and onward to Pune. Bombay is cut off from Dahisar. Beyond Dahisar falls into Palghar district. And beyond Mulund on the Central line falls into Thane district. However, workers commute to and from Mumbai to as far off places like Pune on the Central line and Vapi (Gujarat) on the Western line on a daily basis. However, the Greater Municipality of Mumbai is in charge of all the road-routes within the roads of Mumbai as also the highways leading into Palghar and Thane district. So, it’s quite a large territory that they handle. How much roads does the main Mumbai city have? Here’s some data that is available:
Till the early and mid-1970s, although Mumbai was crowded, it was not as congested and people could still find seats on local trains from a starting point and at major halts. The 70s saw major migration from North into the city as other states failed in economic performance, Mumbai grew rapidly in constructions, the land-Mafia grew bigger and corruption skyrocketed and is at its peak today. Mumbai cannot build more roads on land today. Mumbai cannot reclaim any more land. It cannot extend its land mass and boundaries like many other cities; for eg: Ahmedabad can keep extending its land occupation. That is what makes Mumbai unique in its problems. All that you have to do to add to this mess is compare the population of Mumbai in 1971 and in 2025 and this what you get:
So, Mumbai has gone from 6 million in 1971 to 26 million in 2025. And if you add the extended suburbs and neighboring residents, the population in 2025 goes up to a whopping 35 million. All within the same land mass. Therein lies the whole problem of Mumbai. But all that duffers like Fadnavis or Modi are bothered about is dumping more flyovers and more elevated metro lines on Mumbai as if that will ease the congestion on roads or make life easier for the vast population. Nevertheless, the flyovers and metro lines certainly provide comfort for a large population but DO NOT reduce congestion anywhere. That’s the problem that Dehatis like Modi don’t understand:
So why are these flyovers and metros not solving any problems of congestion? Well, because everything is being built to solve the problems that were born 20-25 years ago and top of it, corruption erodes the construction quality of roads and flyovers that bring about more nuisance and congestion. The two images below are enough to tell the story of why this is failing:
There are reasons why these extended metro lines are not reducing congestion on the roads of Mumbai – there are now about 12 or so metro lines in Mumbai and neighbouring towns. Who shifts to metros? A vast majority of the people shifting to metros are from the local trains, buses and partly those who used autos and scooters (if it offers more convenience). But the bus-loads, train-loads haven’t gone down. The number of buses, trains and autos on the streets haven’t gone down. Therefore, the congestion doesn’t ease nor is there any “eej of living”. Just look at how vehicles have grown in Mumbai from 2014 to 2024:
Road-vehicles have increased from 7.21 lakhs in 2014 to 48 lakhs (including new cars, autos, scooters etc). The flyovers simply cannot ease this dramatic growth in the population of cars. All the car-owners are not going to commute in metros. This is what causes the problems. Modi simply thinks dazzling the public with some new flyovers and metros has created some grand solution. But it’s a FALSEHOOD. It solves maybe just 5% of the old problem while the new problems, vehicle and human population multiplies 100 times more. This is the first part in the series. Now that we have understood the problem, we will also look at some comparable world-cities and then how Mumbai can really be repaired. Much as I think it’s a Garbage City – Everything can be improved if there is a Will.
To be continued…
Follow on Twitter.
EF Invites Funding For A Major Project
Remit From India Remit From Outside India
