Many parts of the world observed today, September 22, as the international car-free day, a day for freedom and safety for pedestrians. The United Nations has supported priority for pedestrians. But the Indian government is busy encouraging cars, it has just announced a productivity linked incentive (PLI) scheme to subsidise the industry to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees.
The Indian ruling establishment remains utterly contemptuous of the needs of pedestrians and is denying adequate funds for creating a dignified walking environment.
But it is so concerned about the exit of three big U.S. vehicle manufacturers General Motors, Harley Davidson and the most recent Ford. They had to wind up due to their own bad planning, design, failure to understand the Indian market. But our Prime Prime Minister even talked with former U.S. president Donald Trump to help Harley. Our ruling class does not care for pedestrians who pay a heavy price for the priority to cars. It means thousands of ordinary people are daily slaughtered on roads, injured, reduced to mental and physical wrecks as victims of traffic
Nothing shows the anti people, anti democratic character of the Indian state than the street. You don’t have to go far, merely stand on the road anywhere and watch the traffic. It is all oriented towards the motor car and against pedestrians. Yet, our blood does not boil. Part of the reason is many activists, even on the Left of the political spectrum, are so addicted to the motor car, and many others to the motor cycle or scooter.
September 15 marked the Engineers Day in India, it is observed to mark the birthday of our foremost civil engineer Sir Visveswarayya. Sorry to say but the record of the civil engineering profession in road building is shamefully unprofessional, as experts have pointed out.Most engineers design roads for cars, not pedestrians..Besides, there seems to be nothing civil about civil engineering when it comes to the need the for good behaviour towards society.
Technological advance in building construction is geared towards profit maximisation not impact on society. It has only increased noise and torture. During the recent controversy over central vista project, I saw pictures of construction workers working on scaffolding in dangerous conditions of some fifty years ago. . Not one bit of improvement in conditions since then. I see this daily around my house. In fact, work is more hazardous now as workers work at great heights without any protection. The municipal administration and others steeped in corruption from head to foot do not seem to care at all. Sure, there are exceptions and not all are to be condemned.
Some people seem to think I have been needlessly harsh on civil engineers. For their benefit I cite a paragraph from a lecture given by respected structural engineer Alpa Sheth in Mumbai two years ago which I attended. She suspects that BMC-empanelled structural engineers do not have any technical expertise or experience in bridge engineering and, in fact, have not even read the Bridge Inspector’s manual published by the Indian Road Congress (IRC). None of these auditors ever undergo a bridge maintenance or audit course, nor are they familiar with IRC codes/circulars on bridge maintenance. She put forward a thought-provoking question: “How can we entrust the important work of inspecting, maintaining and repairing the bridge to apparently unqualified local labourers and their supervisors?”
Most of the speech was a severe indictment of the profession. Unfortunately, there is so little self criticism in our architecture and engineering professions, though they have big organisations, that any criticism comes to us as a surprise.
An ordinary reader of a newspaper would not be surprised at all because day in and day out the media exposes to appalling quality of our roads, bridges and buildings. People are disgusted. Alpa’s lecture was organized by Sucheta Dalal, noted financial journalist, famous for exposing frauds.
Interestingly, Mr Shirish Patel, our well known and perhaps the senior most of our structural engineers, wrote a critical article on the profession a few yeas ago in EPW.
Our public works minister Nitin Gadkari is obsessed with highways and always talks in thousands of crores how they are being spent on highways. If only he paid as much attention to the needs of pedestrians and need to build footpaths.
It is encouraging to find that Mr Shirish Patel, our senior most planner, has strongly recommended this book promoting public transport. It is by Judith Dellheim and Jason Prince, editors, , “Free Public Transit – And why we don’t pay to ride Elevators”.
In that book a case has been made for free public transit as a way of making a city more humane as well as boosting its economy. The costs of transport of course have to be recovered and by free public transit we mean that the travelling public is not charged a fare for their journeys. Instead the cost is met by the property and business owners who are the ultimate beneficiaries of commuting customers and workers, through taxation, congestion pricing, or other appropriate measures.
If restaurants and shops want customers, isn’t it in their interest to make it easier for people to reach them?
And if motorists want clearer roads, surely they should be ready to pay a tax to have more buses on roads .
The book is also favourably reviewed, incidentally, in Monthly Review, the respected journal.
There was a big furore in the media recently when a new flyover opened by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on August 1 is found to be so defective it has had to be closed for repairs after the death of a commuter. But no one cares when no footpaths are built.
If only one uses a little common sense we would find that real signs of decay are right there in front of us. Look carefully at BEST buses and one would find the route numbers on some of them are written in chalk.
So shameful is the treatment of public transport in Mumbai, in some respects it is worse than Bihar was fifty years ago.
There also seems to be a very serious lack of talent when it comes to making appointments for top posts in urban and public transport governance.
It is amusing to find this. It is no reflection on Mr Surenddra Kumar Bagade, who was till recently the general manager of BEST in Mumbai. But he is now a joint secretary in the housing and urban affairs department which oversees the country’s public transport from the corridors in Delhi. So, it is the top most position in this sector.
But the daily setbacks being imposed on our public transport by government and municipal policies do not make news at all. MSRTC, the pioneer in state bus transport in the country, is in a pathetic condition, it is not able pay wages to staff.
And our princely Scindia, minister for civil, aviation, has the gall to talk of democratizing air travel, when common people are being humiliated daily with deteriorating conditions of road and rail transport.
And see the double standards. It is now almost impossible for people to ride the suburban trains in Mumbai due to severe restrictions on grounds of Covid. So the whole burden is falling on BEST buses and these are overcrowded. Are passengers there not susceptible to Covid ?
Road transport in Mumbai is now a disgrace, worse than in backward states. Look at the scene outside the Bandra railway station from a suburb, once known as the queen of suburbs. On both sides, east and west, bus travel is a scandal. Crores of rupees are being spent on redesigning the transport arrangements on the Western sides but due to faulty management things are now much worse than before. No one seems accountable.
The civic corporation in Mumbai began last month online public hearing on how to meet the challenge of climate change. Looks well intended with Mr Aditya Thackeray taking the initiative. But in practice it looks ridiculous considering the outrageously pro car lobby policies being purused by the authorities.
One of the most foolish endeavours is hiring a number of youngsters trained in urban planning and architecture and spending lakhs on extending the car parking infrastructure when the civilized world is reducing car parking facilities.
A big study is being carried out to find area wise car parking needs. If only the authorities had the common sense to first examine the needs of walking and bus and train transport for common people. By not carrying out any such study of common people’s needs and concentrating on car users, the civic body is showing extreme contempt for common people.
Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of a book making a case for improving public transpor