Front page photographs in newspapers today of Prime Minister Modi standing alone in the middle of the sea bridge in Mumbai are quite ironic.The irony is that ordinary people will have little or no access to the facility, it is basically seen as a real estate driven project and for motorists.
This is a 22 km. bridge across the harbour connecting Sewree in Mumbai with the hinterland of Nhava Sheva, he opened and which is greedily eyed by developers and others out to make big profits.
Authorities say they are undecided about allowing buses to travel on the bridge This is a travesty of the national urban transport policy of 2006 which emphasises priority for public transport, pedestrians, cyclists. Pedestrians and cyclists will certainly have no access as no paths are constructed on the bridge for them, the rulers clearly have an aversion to common people.
In this respect we are decades behind New York and San Francisco whose famous bridges are open to pedestrians and cyclists. True, the Mumbai bridge is much longer but it would still certainly be a great asset for cyclists.
This also demonstrates that we reject the best examples from the U.S. while blindly, foolishly imitating its worst planning mistakes like excess motorisation.
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide (1.6 km) strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, Californiad—to Marin County, carrying both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the strait. It also carries pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and is designated as part of U.S. Bicycle Route 95. .
It opened in 1937 and is open to pedestrians and bicyclists since then. A front page report in the Free Press Journal calls the Mumbai bridge the golden bridge which makes the irony sharper. Look at this picture and that, one would say.
One of the architects of this bridge, Strauss, was also a poet while another , Ellis, was a scholar of Greek language.
The trouble is our designers and architects are mere technocrats without any understanding of or respect for common people’s needs.
The Brooklyn bridge is even older, it opened in 1883 and is accessible since then to pedestrians and bicyclists. Both the bridges are iconic, among the most photographed in the world.
The Brooklyn Bridge is a large-scale steel and stone cable-stayed suspension bridge with a central span of 1,595 feet (486m) and a toal length of 5,989 Feet (1,25m). Completed in 1883, it spans the East River to connect the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. It is owned, operated, and maintained by the City of New York’s Department of Transportation, and has remained in active use since its completion, carrying cars, pedestrians and bicycles. Until the mid-20th century, it also carried elevated trains and streetcars. The property covers approximately 20 acres (8 ha).
It is also ironic that while Mr Modi inaugurated the bridge with an eye on the elections and to please the capitalists, facilities for even walking are declining for ordinary, not to speak of the notorious neglect of Mumbai’s once pioneering BEST bus service.
The Z bridge a great facility for walking for college students and others between Matunga west and east across the massive Central railway workshop is proposed to be closed with the excuse of carrying out repairs. Similarly, the skywalk pedestrian bridge connecting Bandra east and west across Bandra station was demolished way back in 2019 increasing hardships for tens of thousands of people seeking access to the corporate fancy district of Bandra Kurla complex. They have to walk through one of the most squalid areas in the country which is such a shame for MMRDA, the Mumbai metropolitan region development authority whose head office is in the vicinity and which boasts all the time about fancy projects.
Similarly, the Gokhale bridge, a vital link between the east and west side of the fast growing suburb of Anderi is closed since 2022 following a partial collapse.
The absence of footpaths in many parts of the metropolis and their dilapidated state in other parts shows the contempt with which the rulers treat common people.
Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of a book seeking priority for public transport, cyclists, pedestrians
