It is good that Aditya Thackeray, Maharashtra’s young environment minister, found time during his visit for the recent Glasgow climate summit to study the working of London Transport organization. He noticed that London operates 9000 buses, 75 per cent of them double deckers.
He made the point during a conference on infrastructure yesterday. He did no talk about the number of BEST buses being run in Mumbai nor the fact London runs so many buses despite its very very dense Metro or tube rail network dating back to the 19th century. But his point can be a very good focus for demanding a more equitable transport for Mumbai. Though Mumbai needs more than nine thousand buses considering the demand, it has less than 3000 running and there is always the looming fear that our bus system is under attack though of late a few signs of hope are visible.
He also talked about providing footpaths and refuge area for pedestrians, a subject seriously ignored by top bureaucrats and politicians obsessed with the very costly Metro railway network , completely unaware of its negative impact.
He made the point during conversation with Rishi Darda during the conference organized by Lokmat media group.
The trouble is our politicians and bureaucrats favour costly mega projects and think this is infrastructure forgetting that people need small local improvements which will cost very little money.
Subhash Desai, industries minister and a sober politician of the Shiv Sena, went gaga over the benefits of the Mumbai Pune expressway saying how it opened up Hinjewadi information technology hub near Pune providing employment to thousands in the IT information technology centre . But the trouble is and he did not mention this is it is so badly planned it takes a long time to reach there amidst all the traffic jams. Most people use personal vehicles causing jams there and government is yet to learn the basics about the benefits of public transport.
Sonia Sahani, additional commissioner of MMRDA and in charge of the Metro rail project, also went gaga over the Metro rail projects in the state ignoring the fact that the Nagpur metro project is a total failure, more a source of an entertainment ride and projects elsewhere as in Thane and Nashik are totally needless, irrelevant.
Bhushan Gagrani, urban development secretary, spoke of the need for the upcoming new airport in Navi Mumbai but made no mention of the much more needed inter state and intra-state bus depots.
Radheshyam Mopalwar, the chief of MSRDC road development corporation now devoting his energies to the much touted Mumbai Nagpur samriddhi mahamarg highway spoke of the great strides made by China and South Korea in highway construction. That is fine but again the problem is people’s real needs are quite different, they need local, safe, walkable road connectivity.
State revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat spoke about how new technology is helping improve land records, registration for houses and agricultural operations. Farmers are now asked to take photographs of their crop produce and digitally transfer them to the government to give a good idea to the government about the likely crop production. The trouble is sinister speculators who are now very active can misuse the crop data for their own benefit.
Mumbai’s municipal commissioner, the impeccably dressed,athletic Iqbal Singh Chahal claimed great benefits from the upcoming coastal road in Mumbai with creation of maidans as large as central park in New York or Hyde Park in London. But these parks are in the heart of these cities, not detached spaces as these new sites will be. Also without a dense tree cover these will be of little use in a hot, humid city. That is one reason the expensive Banda reclamation promenade along the creek is used so little. Besides, it lacks basic amenities for drinking water and sanitation. The government should have had the foresight to acquire textile mill and other lands for big parks which are needed where people actually live. Providing such amenities in some distant area is not the best solution.
Manisha Patankar Mhaiskar, environment secretary of the government, said climate crisis was real and we need to inculcate green habits.
Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of a book on public transport
