Perspective on decongestion and sewage treatment

AJOY MEHTA: Let us see ground facts. Mumbai generates about 8,000 tonnes of garbage daily, and an additional 2,000 tonnes of debris coming from new developments. Of the 8,000 tonnes, 3,000 tonnes is scientifically treated, the rest is landfill across three locations. On sewage, we supply 3,700 million litres of water daily and 2,800 million litres goes untreated into the sea. In terms of infrastructure, 2,200 trucks pick up daily garbage, with 32,000-35,000 people on the roads cleaning up the city. We manage and operate 30,000 toilets, having over one lakh seats.

Now decongestion – Mumbai area is about 476 square kilometres, and just 40 per cent is habitable. Rest is under roads (16 per cent), or no-go areas like CRZ, mangroves etc. Today’s population is 12.44 million, which is expected to be 12.79 million in 2021 and by 2034, the population is expected to drop to 11.44 million, which is what we shall discuss later.

AJIT RANADE: Can free shuttles be used for decongestion? Say at Bandra West, people line up for rickshaw rides. A free shuttle or a hop on, hop off or a mini BEST bus going nonstop on a circular route can decongest the station area.

NIRANJAN HIRANANDANI: We could provide such a free service, but for a suburb the Municipality must play a role. At Powai we did 60-feet roads and thought they were too wide. Today in Thane we built 40-metre roads, and already find them crowded because the scale of vehicle ownership per flat has changed. More mass transport has to be the answer, complemented by services like Uber and Ola.

SHISHIR JOSHI: We are also trying that out with 25 buses in Western suburbs to BKC, which start at Borivli, Kandivli and Andheri. Those paying for about Rs 600 for an Uber can pay about Rs 100 here. There would be a bus every ten minutes.

AJOY MEHTA: For waste water, sewage treatment plant tenders are out. We have already started work at Colaba and six more are being set up. Eventually 2,700 million litres of water will be treated and repumped back into Mumbai for non-potable purposes.

On defacation, Government of India asked administration to identify locations where open defacation takes place. Mumbai has about 118 such spots and we provided toilets there. Thus, making us the only declared megacity to have toilets available. Next was to get people to use them, for which we have recruited Cleanup Marshalls to fine people defecating outside. Media people show us pictures, we tell them take pictures from the front so the face is captured.

We can handle parking in two ways. Firstly, we create a parking authority. We then increase parking availability with higher cost. In the new DCR itself, we have provided very high parking requirements. Housing societies with parking space which empties out in the morning to evening time, can be a parking option. With 5,000 cameras in place across the city, now we need to get standardised licence plates. Such administrative steps need a full-fledged authority. Thirdly, like the app for estimating travel time and traffic on the route, we are working on an app which tells you whether a parking space is available at your destination. If not, it may make sense to adopt other means of transport.