Fixing Mumbaikars’ infrastructural woes

Fixing Mumbaikars’ infrastructural woes

FPJ BureauUpdated: Friday, May 31, 2019, 03:16 PM IST
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Mumbai: Ajoy Mehta Municipal Commissioner in Free Press Journal and Indian Merchant Chamber Present Panel Discussion for Mumbai's Infrastructure at IMC . Photo by BL SONI |

Mumbai’s aura as the commercial capital of India is in danger of wearing thin because the infrastructure growth in the past couple of decades has not kept pace with demand arising from the population. The city has expanded geographically and is now recognized more as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, but a good part of the work commute remains north-south. Pro

jects announced by the authorities get delayed for a plethora of reasons, and as a result often fail to achieve their desired impact on the life and work efficiency of the populace. What do the authorities have in their respective hats which they can pull out?

To discuss this, the FPJ-IMC Forum organized a panel discussion with experts at the Indian Merchants Chamber, Mumbai.  The panel comprised  Mrs. Ashwini Bhide, IAS, Managing Director, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation; Ajoy Mehta, IAS, Municipal Commissioner, MCGM; and U.P.S. Madan, IAS, Commissioner, MMRDA.  The event was moderated by R.N.Bhaskar of FPJ with editorial support from Pankaj Joshi.

The welcome address was given by Dilip Piramal, president, IMC, and the Vote of thanks by the President-Elect Deepak Premnarayen.

Mumbai: Ajoy Mehta Municipal Commissioner ,R. N Bhaskar Consulting Editor FPJ, UPS Madan Commissioner MMRDA and Ashwini Bhide Managing Director Mumbai Metro rail Corporation in Free Press Journal and Indian Merchant Chamber Present Panel Discussion for Mumbai’s Infrastructure at IMC . Photo by BL SONI

Mumbai: Ajoy Mehta Municipal Commissioner ,R. N Bhaskar Consulting Editor FPJ, UPS Madan Commissioner MMRDA and Ashwini Bhide Managing Director Mumbai Metro rail Corporation in Free Press Journal and Indian Merchant Chamber Present Panel Discussion for Mumbai’s Infrastructure at IMC . Photo by BL SONI |

Dilip G. Piramal: A sound infrastructure foundation is necessary for the overall socio-economic development of any state and particularly of the premier cities. Many international companies are keen on collaborating with India on infrastructure including public transportation, renewable energy and developing smart cities.

Mumbai is Maharashtra’s and India’s main economic engine. Authorities have taken several initiatives during the last few years to promote public-private partnership in sectors like power, highways, ports, highways, airports, tourism, and urban infrastructure. But rapid urbanization and the population influx puts pressure on the infrastructure of cities like Bombay.

In the last 30 years, in the state governments, the majority of the MLAs have been from the rural areas, which has somewhat diluted the emphasis on a strong development thrust to Mumbai. You look at Hong Kong and Singapore, they are also cities absolutely in the sea, and you can see how they have grown. In the seventies, Hong Kong and Singapore were no less backward or advanced than Bombay was. But today they have really gone somewhere and we have been just discussing policies and all.

Today, headlines say that either you can cheap affordable housing or you can have green spaces. And I am totally in favor of having affordable housing. If 1% of India’s huge coastline doesn’t have mangroves, it is not going to really hurt the economy. In any city, you have to go away with some of the lake places if you have to have more urbanization. And I have lived all my life in Mumbai, so I feel very strongly.

FPJ: Good evening. For a long time Mumbai, even though it was a revenue generator of the country, has not seen enough investment in infrastructure. Delhi, which is not such a big revenue generator, saw more infrastructure come in and faster.

However in the last few years, money has started pouring in, new plans are being made, some projects have already started bearing tremendous fruits, whether the sea link or it’s the metro. The monorail is still halfway somewhere and the new metros and the new links that are coming up promise to bring a lot of vibrance to Bombay. But Bombay is much, much more than just a road, just a bridge, just a railway line.

Here we have the three people here who matter most to Mumbai, the Municipal Commissioner, Ajoy Mehta; the Managing Director of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation, Ashwini Bhide; and the Metropolitan Commissioner of MMRDA, Mr. U.P.S. Madan.

What I’d request each of them, is to talk a bit about their plans for 15 minutes or so, followed by questions. As the answers start coming, maybe you will get an idea that infrastructure is not an easy job, there are no easy choices. The potential is huge, there is pain, but there is promise too. Could I request Mrs. Ashwini Bhide.

Ashwini Bhide: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I head Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation, a joint venture of Government of India and the State Government, created to execute metro projects in Mumbai. At the moment, we have the responsibility of one of the most ambitious projects of India, Mumbai Metro Line 3. This is a fully underground corridor from Colaba to Seepz via Bandra-Kurla Complex and the airport.

Any city gets a competitive edge if it has a very robust and efficient public transport system, which fortunately Mumbai has since a long time, primarily the 433-km suburban rail system.  But over a period of time that entire system is now oversaturated, and hence is losing its utility in relative terms. In the suburban train system, each train carries 5,000 passengers against its capacity of 1,700-1,800. People still use it for lack of options, because of the geographical linear structure Mumbai has, but its saturation – despite the best capacity enhancement efforts by Indian Railway as well as the State Government through MMRDA – means that there are certain inherent limitations.

Mumbai; Ashwini Bhide Managing Director Mumbai Metro rail Corporation (Photo – B L Soni)

Mumbai; Ashwini Bhide Managing Director Mumbai Metro rail Corporation (Photo – B L Soni) |

So it is key now – if Mumbai has to be the national financial centre and even an international finance centre over a span of 50- 100 years – that we need to enhance our existing public transport system. The metro network is probably the best way in this scenario today. We have prepared Mumbai Metro Master Plan, which has 150 kilometers of network, metro network for the entire city.

What are the advantages of having this metro corridor? Primarily it is last mile connectivity which right now the suburban rail system, with stations at 3-5 km distances – does not provide. In this system, once you get off there is another commute via road which leads to congestion everywhere. In other cities worldwide, there is emphasis on uninterrupted connectivity where people get down at the station and walk across to their destination. The metro network is therefore planned such that there is a station at every one kilometer or so.

MMRDA has already completed the first corridor and people are experiencing how useful it is. The 11-km travel between Ghatkopar to Versova used to take 70 minutes earlier but has now come down to 17 minutes. We are aiming for such efficiency over our 150-172 km layout. That is our task where, as you must be reading since a year, we are struggling with many issues. The corridor was conceived in 2011, Central Government approval obtained in 2013 and the State Government approval in 2014. But in 2016 the execution is yet to start because of issues, because of differences of opinion.

Funds are not an issue. This Rs.23,000-crore project has funding tied up  through multilateral funding agencies, Central Government and a soft loan from Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA). We however have had to resolve many administrative or education-related issues over the past year. I’m sure that in a month, we will be in a position to issue the work order for civil work. The entire tendering process is over and we’re in the final stage of approval. We will be in a position to start the work after the monsoon, and to complete it within the stipulated time of five years.

The State Government has also set up a war room at the Chief Minister’s level where most of these coordination issues are resolved through a single-window system. The land requirement for this project and all other clearances which are needed, have already been taken care of. Once this corridor is completed, it is going to connect six such centers which are today not on the Mass Rapid Transit System network (MRTS). Bandra-Kurla Complex is an example where growth and employment generation need to be complemented by connectivity, which will happen. My team is geared to complete this on schedule.

FPJ: Thank you very much Mrs. Bhide. That was a remarkable overview on the kind of job that you have taken up and hope to fulfill. Could I now request Mr. U.P.S. Madan to talk about his organization and what it means to Mumbai?

Mumbai; UPS Madan Commissioner MMRDA – (Photo – B L Soni)

Mumbai; UPS Madan Commissioner MMRDA – (Photo – B L Soni) |

U.P.S. Madan: Thank you. Since the time a well-planned city was left by the Britishers upto the nineties and beyond, Mumbai has seen a huge change and the population has increased multifold but infrastructure components like water, sanitation, education and health did not increase apace. Two important infrastructure components which are considered vital and grew at a very low pace were public transport and housing.

Look at public transport – you had a linear city, with a business district at one end. In the nineties, BKC was not as developed as it is now. Today we have partial business hubs in Andheri and elsewhere but then people had to travel a long distance and the only mode was suburban train and of course, for BEST buses for the shorter distances. While both these were efficient and reliable, lack of augmentation saw overcrowding and service quality suffered. Obviously you cannot expect a car owner to take a train or a bus, so greater vehicle load comes on roads. The modal split which once was aligned 88-90% towards public transport, has come down to about 68-69%.

There was a need to augment public transport capacity by new modes, in line with worldwide trends. The first State Government initiative was the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) in 2000, which was the first time in India where a State Government agreed to provide 50% of the funds with the railways to augment capacity in a city. Benefits were visible after MUTP-I and today MUTP-II is almost complete. A number of new technology rakes have been introduced, new tracks laid, conversion from DC to AC system done, other technical improvements, conversion of some none coach trains to 12-15 coaches have all helped but the comfort level is still lacking. So, the next step was other modes of transport, and the best option for the kind of demand we have in Mumbai, is the metro.

MMRDA prepared a comprehensive transport plan 2008, identifying a number of metro corridors and other transport corridors. In the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), total metro transport network is around 450 kilometers. In the MCGM area itself it is around 172 kilometers, which we have taken up phase-wise across 8-9 corridors. The first Metro corridor came two years back through a PPP model, from Versova to Ghatkopar and has been running very well, with about 3 lacs ridership on weekdays. However, this took five years to complete and hence the decision taken was to implement others parallelly. Therefore new Metro corridors have been taken up now at one-go. Two corridors starting from Dahisar to D.N. Nagar (in Andheri) and another corridor from Dahisar, to Andheri along the Western Express Highway, were immediately taken out. We have already awarded the work orders yesterday, so the work will start very soon.

The third one, from D.N. Nagar to BKC and upto Mankhurd, has also been recently approved by the government and will be taken up by DMRC very soon. Other corridors also will be starting maybe within 2-3 months. The Metro so far is isolated corridors which doesn’t give you full benefit. But within the next four years or so, you’ll have the entire city covered with Metro corridors. Once you have a full network, like in other major cities worldwide, you may have to change the Metro at a place, but you don’t have to take another mode of transport.

Apart from that, we also introduced the first Monorail in the country. The first phase is mostly in the areas not well-habitated, but the second phase is more critical and is likely to be started by this year end. It is about 11 km, starting from Mahalaxmi Jacob Circle to Wadala linking up with the existing Wadala-Chembur corridor. The 20 kilometers of monorail will be going through congested areas, making available a comfortable option of public transport.

MMRDA’s role is twofold. First is planning for the entire MMR which is about 4,300 odd square kilometers where MMR is ten times the MCGM area, but 50% of population is in the Mumbai area. Second is execution of the major infrastructure projects with public transport being a priority area, across the MMR. Roads and flyovers and bridges are also important, be it Mumbai city itself or be it rest of MMR where we have to connect the rest of MMR with the city.

A large number of big road projects have already been done. Under the MUTP from 2004 onwards all the major roads in the city were taken up for upgradation and augmentation including the Western Express Highway and the Eastern Express Highway. Then we constructed the Eastern Freeway, where people going from south Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, Thane or Pune have been hugely benefited, since it now takes 20-25 minutes to cross from the city to Chembur.

Flyovers constructed by MMRDA include the Sahar Elevated Road, the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road, which again is a totally new road, the JVLR, Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road. We may not realize today living in the city, but a person who comes back in the city after 4-5 years can see the difference.

Among upcoming projects a critical one is the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL), which all of you have been awaiting anxiously. We made several attempts by MSRDC, which didn’t bear fruits. Ultimately the government decided that we will do it ourselves. MMRDA will put in funds, an in-principle loan approval from JICA is in place and today itself, we have started the bidding process, which is a very big milestone. In 5-6 months work will be awarded.

A multi modal corridor linking Vasai-Virar to Alibaug is also in the pipeline. We aim to link the entire MMR in a way that you can go from anywhere to anywhere within one hour.

The last important project which I would like to highlight, is having an International Financial Services Center (IFSC) in BKC. There is one IFSC which is going to come up in GIFT City, Ahmedabad, but Mumbai being the financial capital of the country also requires an IFSC. We have already invited bids to appoint a company for this project, and other things like modifications of some laws and regulations, and approvals for converting it into SEZ are in process. We are pushing the city definitely to make it an international world-class city. Some time has already gone, but we are trying to make up for lost time. Within the next decade you can definitely see a city which is very different from what we have seen today. Thank you.

FPJ: Thank you, Mr. Madan. We now go to the third speaker, Ajoy Mehta of the MCGM, who has a maximum number of headaches, challenges, protests and through whom we expect so much.

Mumbai: Ajoy Mehta Municipal Commissioner (Photo – B L Soni)

Mumbai: Ajoy Mehta Municipal Commissioner (Photo – B L Soni) |

Ajoy Mehta: For Mumbai’s infrastructure what is needed? Four things. First Mumbai is the commercial capital of the country and therefore any infrastructure that you create must create and facilitate employment. Without employment you cannot be the commercial capital.

Second, having created employment the next need is housing infrastructure. There is no sense in a commercial city which has jobs but no houses for people. And of course, in parallel you need transport. It connects the commercial areas with the housing.

You have your employment, housing and transport connectivity, the next is quality of life. You have to have infrastructure which caters to quality of life. This means you need open spaces, theaters, hospitals, schools, all of which add to the quality of life.

But while creating all of this, you tend to forget those people who have a great capacity to contribute, but are at the margins. You therefore need infrastructure which caters to what we call social equity. Today just about 17% of the women are in the workforce in Mumbai. You need to have women come and contribute to the economy of Mumbai. Are you creating infrastructure which facilitates that? Are you creating infrastructure so that the differently abled can come forward, contribute to your economy? Is your infrastructure compliant to ensure that every citizen delivers to his best for the economic wellbeing of the city. So social equity issues are infrastructure issues.

These are the four things to my mind that need to be done for any infrastructure in Mumbai and towards which we are working. I must also answer what my friend Dilip said. First, mangroves have been a part of Mumbai, and will remain a part of Mumbai. They are important. We have protected them and in the development plan we are making all-out efforts to ensure that mangroves remain protected.

Secondly, when you talk of infrastructure there is definitely no competition between any of the four components. It cannot be open spaces versus houses. Open spaces have a role to play and we have to protect, propagate and ensure that they grow. Houses have a role to play, and have to be provided and we have ensured a mechanism which provides houses for people. In fact I would place all four  things, housing, employment, social equity and quality of life on an equal plane. The whole challenge, administrative and political is to ensure that all four get delivered, delivered quickly and delivered in time and together.

Dilip Piramal: I must say it is such a brilliant and succinct explanation of what required in Bombay, with the added proviso that one is not against the other. Even if you achieve 50% of what you have said, I think, we will have a great city.

FPJ: Okay. Let me begin my questions, and Ajoy can I take the questions first with you? Your job is formidable. You have to deal with corruption. You have to deal with a huge backlog of inertia, and there are two or three areas where infrastructure is not just roads but clean roads, open roads, unblocked roads, and clear pavements. You need no illegal parking on the roads, you need nothing on the footpaths, you need to make sure that the Municipal Corporation gets more money, which means a fair amount of property tax, which means something that is pending for many years under Rent Control Act and paying market prices of property that is another headache and vicious political subject. And lastly, you have waste management. Could I get your view on these areas, first before I go the others?

Ajoy Mehta: You talked about corruption. Corruption has to be dealt with what is called system improvement. Yes, policing has a role, but finally unless you create systems you can’t reduce corruption. And the only method of creating systems is please trust the citizen.

Unless you repose trust you cannot reduce corruption. And this is what we are doing now. We are trying to take most of the things to self-certification. So we are now taking things to a level where everybody must self-certify. Once you put these systems in places you will find that corruption reduce. In fact, we are the first city in the country which will launch a completely online building proposal approval system. You put in an application at one place and you will see the latest status, and also every noting that is made on the file and how the file moves from one person to another.

Second, you said inertia. The MCGM is one of the most efficient corporations, coming from a person who has worked in the Nashik Municipal Corporation and has travelled quite a bit. Given the kind of problems and the way my team deals with it, I would give them full marks. Yes, like any another profession there are certain percentage of people who don’t work, but then I suppose that is everywhere. Let me tell you, we have a very efficient team, a good team in corporation and they are trying to put in their best and I’m sure you will see things as we move along.

In road quality, there is a lot to be desired. We have done some things like changing some design factors in the road so they can be done in a much better way. Second is the initiative to bring in more transparency in road bidding, including moving it online.

Third is to reduce work time, where and the police was very cooperative. One thing we told the police is that if the road is blocked anyway, why don’t you permit work during the day? Infrastructure work should be done 24/7. The police are allowing us and now you will find road maintenance happening much faster. Then in the case of concrete roads, we saw contractors using a concrete, which takes 21 days to cure. Closing a road for 21 days is criminal in a city like Mumbai, when you can have a seven-day concrete option which is our focus. So anywhere we do a concrete road, we should be able to get it done and over within seven days.

I will not touch upon property tax because it is a huge and vexatious topic. It needs a separate discussion. Waste is something that’s being weighing on everybody’s mind, especially since the Deonar fire. We have not been disposing waste in an efficient manner. People keep asking we shut down Deonar or Mulund? Yes we will as part of a shift towards scientific processing of garbage. Garbage has to be processed scientifically. You can’t do landfill anymore. Those days are over.

For Mulund, the bids are already out for scientific processing. At Deonar, we are going in for both waste-to-energy and scientific segregation. At Kanjur, we are already doing about 3,000 tons biomethanation.

Second thing to understand is that waste has value and people have to see it. Today debris has no value, so people dump it in creeks, in mangroves, on the road. We are now setting up a debris to construction material plant. The minute you set that up, debris has a value, nobody dumps it, because he’s going to earn money out of it. So, waste has to be processed scientifically and we now have a stated policy in the corporation that we will not dump waste, we are going to process it scientifically.

It will get us some time to get these projects off the ground, but we are now committed to doing it.

FPJ: From my very lay understanding of the city and its finances and its management, one thing which baffles me is, method of allocation of projects between MMRDA and the BMC and now with the MMRC. Could you throw some light on the way demarcation takes place?

U.P.S. Madan: Legally the situation is hazy. The project can be taken up in the same area by the Municipal Corporation concern and by MMRDA also, so there is an overlap. But the unwritten law is that major regional projects should be taken up by MMRDA and the local level projects by the Municipal Corporation. MMRDA being a regional authority, so projects which are regional in nature come to us.

Now you may ask how Metro, starting and ending within the city, becomes regional. But Metro is public transport and the Government and MMRDA took a conscious decision that we take up public transport projects. MCGM anyway has a number of other infrastructure projects in hand. The understanding is working fine.

The MMRC was set up as an SPV between Government of India and Government of Maharashtra wherein they both as well as MMRDA provode funds. Today it is an SPV for a particular project, Metro III but any future project allotment to MMRC is a Government call.

FPJ: Okay. I’ve got a connectivity question, talking specifically of the Monorail project. This is one project that has neither the connectivity to the metro nor a major station. It’s there in the middle. You’ve got the Monorail from Ghatkopar, it starts from Chembur. You got something ending at Wadala – eventually at Jacob Circle, but doesn’t connect to your major station. Are you going to change the planning for that project?

U.P.S. Madan: I think the Monorail has been misunderstood. Monorail idea is not necessarily connecting with other modes of transport. It is a transport option for a very congested areas where other public transport modes like railway or metro could not be introduced. Underground is not easy, elevated transport needs space. So you have to have monorail kind of light rail, which can go through the narrow lanes. What we are trying to do is we are trying to link it with the railway station wherever it is possible, like Chembur.

Ajoy Mehta: It will be linked to the station where possible. But the real benefit, you said – it’s nowhere to nowhere kind. The first phase apparently looks like an isolated kind of area. But once it is completed and comes up to Mahalaxmi or Jacob Circle, then it will be an independent corridor which will help lot of local ridership.

When we talk about monorail, we are not talking about long distance travelers; we are talking about the local travelers – a person who wants to travel from Mahalaxmi and wants to go to KEM hospital. So it will be useful for these kind of people.

Ashwini Bhide: I’d just like to add on this, because I was associated with monorail when I was in Metro. It is not a mass rapid transit system, but a complementary system. Ideally, you should have a direct connectivity, but in Mumbai it is just not possible. So we have a skywalk, which connects monorail Chembur station to the main Chembur station. A similar arrangement should be done for Mahalaxmi station.

FPJ: Okay. Mrs. Bhide, how has development of Metro stations been vis-à-vis Delhi? In Delhi there was no local train. Now, when you build a railway line from Dahisar to D.N. Nagar or connecting Ghatkopar to various other stations or Cuffe Parade downwards, you will be competing with the railways.

Ashwini Bhide: To be frank, it is not competition but a complementary system. Today suburban rails are carrying passengers much more than their capacity, which means the quality of travel is absolutely subhuman. Many people who are today taking cars would like to travel in a public transport system, if it could be a quality experience.

Today if you take the Colaba to Seepz corridor, there is right now no direct suburban rail connectivity. There is a train journey and then a bus or rickshaw ride, adding to the road congestion.

The way this Metro Master Plan has been prepared by MMRDA, with the help of DMRC, areas not connected by the suburban rail are captured, Again the suburban rail network in Mumbai is completely linear. It is North-South. There is no East-West connectivity. Today Churchgate and CST suburban stations are not connected to each other, which will get connected by metro. Today somebody on a suburban system can travel to CST, but can switch over if he needs to go to Cuffe Parade, and avoid any road transport.  Today, you get down at CST and to go to Cuffe Parade take a taxi or a bus, a process which takes 40-50 minutes for 4-5 km.

What is being developed is a grid, from anywhere to anywhere, You have to change the stations, but you will reach anywhere. The Metro network is planned in such a way that it actually enhances the utility of the suburban rail system and it further gives the last mile connectivity to any passenger.

FPJ: No. I agree with you. To be fair the railways themselves are trying to upgrade the quality of service. People have been falling off trains. People have been dying. It’s only now that you started talking about having doors, air-conditioned coaches. Bombay’s main railway system was the most hazardous railway system possibly anywhere.

And if I had a choice been traveling in a Metro or a Mono Rail compared to the existing trains, even after they were refurbished, I’d prefer the Metro. I prefer the Mono Rail. So there will be a lot of pressure on the railways to upgrade still further and become competitive with you. What’s your view?

Ashwini Bhide: Today, the suburban rail system, even if it wants to get upgraded, cannot be stopped even for a day. With that limitation, unless you have an alternative mode of transport, railways will never get an opportunity to upgrade the way they desire.

Look at the load. Globally the public transport system density is six people per square metre, eight is considered dense. Mumbai has 12-16 people per square metre, which is why so many people are dying. But unless you have an alternative system they do not have much opportunity to upgrade. And anyway some competition only ensures that both the systems work efficiently.

FPJ: Absolutely. In fact, we use to always talk about, when you transport animals, there is a minimum square foot that each animal must have. For human beings there is no minimum. Ajoy, coming back to you – what are you going to do to clean the footpath and get illegally parked cars on roads away?

Ajoy Mehta: As far as cleaning of footpaths is concerned, we have made it very clear that on footpaths there cannot be commercial profit. Public land cannot be used for private profit. We all pay taxes. The plan envisages that there shall be a footpath on which you shall walk, it cannot be used. So the first thing is that I was surprised to see that we have restaurants and furniture shops using footpaths.

In fact there are two levels of business that takes place in the footpath. One level of business is absolutely elite. You have a Chinese restaurant which serves you the best fine dining on the footpath. That’s something we’ve said, no way, and we have started a move to demolished them. There are some court and legal issues to deal with, we are dealing with them and we’re going to get that going.

The second issue is of hawkers. Hawkers are a necessity, they are there because people want them to be there. It’s not something that we can simply wish away, but we need regulation. We now have a Town Vending Act which is going to get notified very soon, then you will have proper hawking zones.

Street selling is something that is recognized world over. It is an irritant when it is unorganized. It’s not properly regulated. So once a proper hawking zone is notified, people who are selling those small things on a day-to-day basis and people who are buying them can buy them at particular points so that hawking gets taken care of.

With respect to food, the Court has clearly passed orders forbidding cooking on streets. We are moving on that, but then again, there are issues. Where do you get your hot cup of tea and vada pav from? The last issue is hygiene. Come monsoon or summer, there are ice products or products made in water, which tend to become the point from diseases spread. So again, we are now coming down very heavily on any drinks or food items sold on the streets, which can play with the lives and the health of people. So, that’s something that we take regular samples and we are moving on many fronts to ensure that footpaths remain for the purpose they were built.

For parking, if you had the Commissioner of Police, he would be telling you much more clearly. But what we are doing is proposing what is called a Parking Authority for Mumbai. Today we do not know at one go how many parking spaces are available and where. There is no efficiency in parking. Parking is an unorganized sector.

We propose a Parking Authority, all parking spaces are going to be mapped, and the Parking Authority will then ensure that these parking spaces are efficiently used. Today if you took a drive from here to maybe Worli, you can switch on your app and see how many minutes it’s going to take you to reach Worli. You exactly know which signal is crowded.

Will I get a parking space once I reach? There is no way that you would know that. But once we get the Parking Authority in place, we will map all the parking places and we are going to do it as a part of the DP and do it soon. You will be able to then bring efficiency in parking and also inform the citizens in advance whether, at his destination, a parking would be available.

FPJ: Could I request Mr. Madan to address some of the questions that have been directed to him.

U.P.S. Madan: The first question is –why not construct thorough road from Churchgate to Borivali on an elevated stone wall on both sides of the railway tracks, which will help for smooth traffic.

Foremost, one cannot encroach on the directive of another agency. This is Railway property, and in fact they have a plan of constructing an elevated corridor of railways over the railways. So till that plan is on the horizon I cannot ask for a road. Ideally there can be a road over railway tracks, but practically it is extremely difficult to construct anything. When we want to just construct a bridge over the tracks, it sometime takes two years. Here you are talking of 60-70 km of along the track when we are allowed to work only 2-3 hours out of 24 hours, it is very difficult.

Next, is inter-modal transfer being coordinated? Yes, two ways of inter-modal transfers. One is the physical way of linking stations of two different modes of transport, which we are doing as I mentioned earlier. The other is the same tickets to be used for more than one modes of transport. Here too we are going ahead, we have already started the process of engaging a consultant for that. We are working on both so that inter-modal transfer becomes effective and easy.

Next is, will MTHL include rail or public transport? As MTHL stands today, it is only a six lane road, without a rail corridor. For rail corridor there can be a separate bridge, but as of now we have only the road transport. On that through bridge, with no signals, any public transport can also travel at the same speed as a car.

Another question I have is is about BKC connectivity worsening. That is certainly a problem these days. We have planned certain things, the work on connectivity of bridge or elevated road from BKC G-Block to Eastern Express Highway is already on. So people coming from Navi Mumbai or Thane can directly enter BKC without any obstruction. We have also invited tenders for two flyovers which will link BKC to the Sea-Link immediately after crossing the road from the Western Express highway. After coming from the Sea-Link, you can straight away take a bridge and enter BKC. Similarly, from BKC towards the Sea-Link, there will be these two flyovers.

The third initiative which we have taken is to have a direct elevated road from BKC to Vakola Junction, which will be an elevated road. We are in touch with Mumbai University to take the land because it’s going on the side of the University land and they have in principle agreed. So, once we get this land possession, we will work on a new elevated road and have much better connectivity with BKC.

FPJ: Mrs. Bhide, the next batch of questions is for you.

Ashwini Bhide: The first point is why cannot we have five levels of elevated Metro on top of one another, and why not parallel lines? The other is use of technology in area of safety to prevent deaths.

We all have discussed that Metro has a purpose to serve, namely to go to those areas which today are not served by other public transport. You cannot therefore have five Metro lines on top of one another. Of course, they need to cross, which is a different matter.

On the safety matter, I just would like to say that the Metro 3 system is the state-of-the-art, the most modern system which we are going to put up, which is how tendering has taken place for the systems, including the latest type of rolling stock and the latest communication system. The communications-based train control system (CBTC) is the most latest signaling system which we have in India, which actually allows us to go for a 90-second frequency. With our structural issues, the frequency will be upto 2.50 minutes, but this is the best possible communication system.

The underground Metro will have platform screen doors, so the issue of people falling down on the platform or somebody committing suicide will not arise because those doors will open only when the train comes at the station and the train doors are opened.

From the safety viewpoint, we will have the latest surveillance system. Escalators, lifts, all even Wi-Fi system is being put in. It will be a state-of-the-art system which will take care of all the gaps in today’s public transport system and enhance the safety, efficiency, as well as the overall commuting experience for the commuters.

The second question is – with rehabilitation issues for Metro-III still not addressed, will there be any delay on account of it?

I would say, no. If you look at all projects handled by MMRDA and the magnitude of Metro-III, the issues are minimal. The rehabilitation issues are of two types. There are some slum structures in the northern part and for those the rehabilitation plan is absolutely ready, including alternative housing. We have already started giving them allotment letters, and once the contractors are in place and the time comes, we will start shifting.

Because it is underground, we actually don’t have to disturb many people only in certain areas where we have to construct stations. There is some disturbance. There are only two stations – Girgaum and Kalbadevi – where some buildings are impacted, and we have been discussing this. This is being debated even in the media and we have taken cues from that. The Chief Minister has announced certain rehabilitation policy for people in this area on the floor of the house. Accordingly we had engaged consultants and prepared a plan which actually reduces the impact on the buildings. Only those buildings which were required and want to go for redevelopment are being taken in that redevelopment plan. A very tentative plan has been prepared and submitted to government. Some changes in the current regulation are needed, and once the government approves it will be shared with people.

So, without taking care of rehabilitation, and without getting people’s acceptance, we are not going to touch anything. The tunnel work, tunneling happens with the Tunnel Boring Machines. They can work once we get these launching shaft places where we do not disturb any building. That can happen without any impact on the timeline. Station works are planned only for Girgaum-Kalbadevi, and that will start only once this issue is resolved. It will not have any long-term impacts on the timelines of the project.

Another query is about underground project tunneling – whether there is a flooding issue? I would say no. Tunneling is a 150-year old technology and all the major cities in the world have tunnels. London has almost 400-kilometer long tunnels. Seoul has a 900-kilometer long underground metro. Singapore, many other cities have tunnels and many of these cities are in the same climatic zone as we are.

Technologically all these issues are dealt with. The way tunneling is done, the way the water table is basically managed, flooding won’t be an issue. Where there are very heavy rain days, there are standard operating practices for those days. The necessary arrangements are already part of the project. So flooding will not be an issue as far as underground tunnel is concerned.

The last issue is about fare. You must appreciate that this is a PPP project where the private player is present and they are trying to fix the fare at a particular rate. Against that, the state government is fighting for reasonable fares and so far they have been successful in getting that stay order from the Supreme Court.

However, Metro III or all other projects where MMRDA is involved are basically public projects. If you see in other cities – Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation, Chennai Metro Rail Corporation – wherever there is a public entity running the project then we don’t go by profit maximization or revenue maximization. It is basically the commuter maximization method and that is why fares are fixed in such a way that there are more and more commuters.

Obviously we do not have an interest in increasing the fares in a way that there would not be any commuters. This transport system is there to make people shift from the road, from cars to metro system, or from the overcrowded suburban rail system. Therefore the fares will obviously be fixed in such a manner that trains attract many passengers and passengers also have a comfortable and a quality commuting experience.

FPJ: Thank you very much. And now we come to more questions and more answers from Ajoy Mehta.

Ajoy Mehta: Let me start with the coastal road. First question was when is this starting? We hope to start the work by about November, December. We are going to do it in eight phases, there are eight phases but we’ll run all the phases parallelly.

The first phase is likely to be from Princess Street flyover to Priyadarshini Park, and on to the Worli Sea Link and then from there to Bandra, across 3-4 tenders. We have put the expression of interest already out, and now we are waiting for contractors to come in and the pre-bid to start.

Next, is it going to be for private vehicles? Nowhere have we said that the road will not allow buses. Coastal Road will be the first road in Mumbai with a dedicated BRTS, so it’s not just for cars. The road would also create nearly 90 hectares of green open space which, as per our undertaking to the Environment Ministry, will be kept pure green, nothing allowed. So, Coastal Road is for buses, for cars and we will also create green spaces, cycling tracks, and play areas for children.

Next one is about paver blocks. Paver blocks are an ideal option for footpath, but not on roads. On roads we have banned them. All across Mumbai, you will find that a big problem is the junctions, which were unfortunately done in paver blocks. We have taken up a program to change these paver blocks to asphalt.

Another big problem in Mumbai is trenching. I come from the power sector where trenching is a need, and I used be frustrated with the corporation where they would never give me trenching permission. Trenching is necessary for any growing city, whether for putting in power cables, data cables, gas lines, water lines, sewer lines. The trick is how quickly and how well you close your trench.

We have now put a system in place, where you open the trench, we will close it in a small period of time. This turnaround is set, so if you need a trenching permission, please give us your demand by this date, so that we can consolidate demand. Once you open up a trench, put the data cable in, put the power cable in, put your power, water line in everything together. If you give it to us with a prior notice period, we can consolidate demand, but if you give us beyond that date, we shall charge you a premium and make it difficult for you to do trenching. We are trying to make it systematic, but trenching is an evil we have to live with, because the city grows.

Next is a road for emergencies, which is not possible. Maybe for a particular emergency we can do it, otherwise no because Mumbai’s road network area is just 9% of its area against the world standard of 18%. It is difficult to get emergency lanes in Mumbai. Possibly within the newer roads, when we do the Coastal Highway, but not possible on the older road network.

On the topic of sewerage, today in Mumbai, we supply about 3,200 million litres of water every day. Of this, 1,200 million litres unfortunately go into the sea untreated. So we have ended messing the sea, we don’t have a beach on which you can walk, and at the same time we are wasting precious water.

To remedy this, in the next four years, we are putting up sewage treatment plants and the Colaba plant tender is already out. We are starting the work in the next one month. We are going to bring back around 1,000 million litres back into the city for washing, cleaning and non-portable purposes. It’s difficult to put up a new dam now with environmental concerns and people unwilling to give up their land, so we are looking at this method.

Now onto housing. Today, 42% of Mumbai is in slums and 20% of Mumbai is cessed buildings, so 62% of Mumbai today has become entitled for free housing. Therefore, 38% of Mumbai has to pay for the 62% of the population. You buy one flat here, you have to buy two more along with it. Yes social equity is important and that has made housing very very difficult.

Here we would say that there are people today who don’t live in slums, who don’t live in cessed building, who also want to buy an house, and it is for them that we are talking affordable housing in the development plan. Let us not push this category of people who are not living in slums, into the slums. They say that, after 25-30 years of work I should be able to buy a house for myself, and that is where affordable housing comes in. We have so far forgotten his category and this time round they are present in the development plan. The government is very keen that we address this population.

Next is the mosquito issue. Mumbai surprisingly doesn’t have malaria, incidence is marginal. The biggest incidence is dengue. Last season, we dealt with dengue in a way that surprised many people. We went first to check the house where the dengue was reported and found that 99% of such houses were actually breeding the dengue mosquito in their own house. People don’t realize that dengue is a mosquito that breeds on clean water, not on sewage. The tray under your refrigerator, that little Feng Shui plant in the corner, that little tyre, which you replaced and thought you must keep because it carried you to the first interview, which gave you the job, all that collects water, and then leads to dengue.

So now we do not visit houses, when people come we show them this is where the problem is. My appeal to citizens is, dengue is something that happens in your house or in your neighbor’s house. Please don’t mind if he comes in and checks and tell you, do it yourself, we will be only too happy.

Public art is something we are promoting but the public response is yet to come. If you see Kilachand Chowk the corporation band plays there every Saturday. We have huge banners saying welcome any bands who would like to play there, we are happy to give it out to you free of cost. A group that plays jazz or jam, any music, is most welcome to come and use it. We have similarly put banners on many traffic islands saying that if you are a budding sculptor, please come and put that sculpture there with your telephone number and maybe you can sell your sculpture. I did that in Nashik and that was hugely popular. But somehow here I have not got the response.

On decongestion of Mumbai, that is a problem urban planners are always grappling with in the development plan. Do you make the city go vertical? Or do you spread the city? Going vertical means more FSI. Spread the city, take a call on open spaces and commuting. Urban residents want houses in situ. They are ready to live in tall buildings, but they don’t want to go away, because their economic and social linkages are there in the vicinity, family, friends, school, workplaces. That is a problem you grapple with on a daily basis, but the main thing is can you get your infrastructure in place so that the living is more comfortable?

Whether the Metro should be in Aarey or not, Ashwini is the one who calls the shots. She sends me the letters and we simply follow.

Regarding the development plan, it is almost ready. This time around we put the development plan line-by-line in public domain as it was being made. Please react. Please observe. We ourselves are correcting each rating as we move on. In all probability by the end of this month, the curtain shall fall on the development plan drafting. Once it is done then it goes into the public domain for suggestion, objections and for the legal process as described in the act.

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