Good things are happening but action is needed
NIRANJAN HIRANANDANI: Let us summarise the good things that have happened in the recent past. First is the planned metro rail. The aggregate suburban railway line (Western, Central and Harbour) today is 170 kilometres. Against that, all the metro phases planned in the next seven years have 170 kilometres.
Second is the trans-harbour bridge, pending since 45 years. At the time of conception its budget was only Rs 100 crore and now it is only Rs 16,000 crore, but at least it is now going to happen.
The third is the coastal road project for Mumbai, the personal passion of the Commissioner. This will be like a ring road and should make a paradigm shift to the entire western suburbs. Then is the Navi Mumbai airport, expected to be completed in the next two years.
Last is the upcoming railway enhancement, a high speed corridor coming from VT to Panvel via the Palm Beach road, and a railway passenger service from Panvel to Karjat, which today is just a freight corridor. In addition there is the express railway corridor in the western side.
We have Rs 1, 70,000 crore being spent on urban infrastructure in the next five years, more than the total investment by governments in the last 70 years put together. 70 per cent of all this is already arranged to be funded by the Japanese and various commitments done by the state government and the central government agency.
One thing missing, related to my field of activity, is affordable housing taking off. The sewage treatment point raised by Kanodia is of course relevant, and with that the recycling of water.
KANODIA: This is a city blessed with a sea front of 149 km, beaches of 16 km, three lakes, four rivers, surrounded by hills with mangroves of 70 square km and eight forts.
As a layman, the problems are clear – very few open spaces, one of the highest population densities worldwide (indicating regular population growth), extremely high cost of real estate, rampant encroachments including roads are some. Then there is the discharge of untreated sewage into the sea and rivers, due to which none of us can go and swim in the sea. For slums, we don’t need any further description.
Now the potential – the Bombay Port Trust plans to release 900 acres of land, which is a Godsend and should be capitalised on. Then, as per the Municipal Commissioner, Ajoy Mehta, the BMC has ‘Rs 60,000 crore in the bank.’ We already know that huge infrastructure investments are in process, but we need better connectivity with the mainland. For Mumbai Island to expand into mainland India, we should plan on a Golden Triangle of Mumbai, Pune and Nashik. We need to privatise municipal services, like we have done with the airports, then to improve public transport, then to increase the speed of execution.
SHISHIR JOSHI: Mumbai was at one point India’s best city, also Asia’s best. This image has taken a beating in today’s times. I would look at the image aspect, aspects of affordable housing – is it really affordable? Then hitherto open spaces have become living rooms or often bedrooms. Today the few open spaces available, when compared globally, are these really good open spaces. Then, somewhere at a city level we feel a huge trust deficit between citizens and governance. Can we start bridging the trust deficit?
Another issue is governance – there are 17-18 agencies running the city. Very often we talk of a road and multiple agencies saying this road doesn’t belong to me, but to someone else.
The last part is civil society, which still works in silos. Verticals which talk about water management talk in their own manner, verticals which talk about road and sanitation talk in their own manner. We need an integrated viewpoint, for which we must decongest our minds.