Architects challenge anti-people projects,misuse of public space

Patwardhan Public Park Mumbai
Patwardhan park in Bandra saved from the onslaught of the automobile lobby

To begin on a positive note it is encouraging to find that   92  young architects  have come together under the auspices of   Mumbai Architects Collective   and urged the municipal commissioner  that  public spaces in the metropolis should  be used for public benefit  and not taken over for   infrastructure projects . Many feel these  projects are fanciful and do not serve public purpose.

  The group has succeeded in saving Patwardhan park in Bandra from being  converted into a parking lot for cars. Such car parks have  proved to be a big financial drain on the civic body but this does not deter the authorities from indulging in  pursuing such anti-people projects.

   Sadly, the authorities have absolutely no understanding of   the need of public transport  for  people while they pamper the motor car lobby and affluent motorists.

A Car-free day was observed  on September 22 in many parts of the world, there is little awareness in India about the extremely negative impact of motor cars on urban life and the envionment in general. It is important to note that the air inside all personal vehicles is polluted with harmful substances including those known or suspected to cause cancer—according to a new peer-reviewed study published (May 7) in Environmental Science & Technology. Car manufacturers add these chemicals to seat foam and other materials to meet an outdated federal flammability standard with no proven fire-safety benefit.

“Our research found that interior materials release harmful chemicals into the cabin air of our cars,” said lead author Rebecca Hoehn, a scientist at Duke University. “Considering the average driver spends about an hour in the car every day, this is a significant public health issue. It’s particularly concerning for drivers with longer commutes as well as child passengers, who breathe more air pound for pound than adults.”

The researchers detected flame retardants inside the cabins of 101 cars (model year 2015 or newer) from across the U.S. 99 percent of cars contained tris (1-chloro-isopropyl) phosphate (TCIPP), a flame retardant under investigation by the U.S. National Toxicology Program as a potential carcinogen. Most cars had additional organophosphate ester flame retardants present, including tris (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCIPP) and tris (2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP), two California Proposition 65 carcinogens. These and other flame retardants are also linked to neurological and reproductive harms.

The Indian government’s servility to the motor car lobby and callousness towards the basic needs of public transport for the masses is now well recorded. Shamefully, there is a glut of cars in the market , huge stocks remain unsold, big inventory, the distributors are suffering huge losses at the same time very few buses are being produced. Unbelievable this is happening in a democracy.

There is also a close connection between fascism and motor cars, Hitler was the original promoter of the car lobby,his dream was to make the Volkswagen a people’s car, completely ignorant as he was of the serious consequences this has for the environment.

It is a kind of poetic justice that Volkswagen, a pet of Hitler,  proposes to close several plants because of a crisis in the car market, lakhs of cars remain unsold, ports are clogged with unsold cars.

Instead of reading the signals, the Indian government continues to promote the car lobby, humiliating common people. So, it wants to build more car parking spaces even as car parks built at a huge cost to our treasury lie empty.

On every front the government has failed miserably when it comes to transport. Mumbai Mirror carried a front page story earlier this week  about the failure of the most ill conceived, ill designed mono rail project in Mumbai.

About car-free days, it was observed  on a spirited note by  some young, enthusiastic activists mainly  girls and women of the organisation Fridays for Future  at  St Stanislaus school school in  Bandra  in Mumbai with a discussion and  shouting of slogans  demanding immediate relief  from automobile dominance.

After attending a function at ITC Grand Central hotel at Parel two days ago I crossed the road and came upon this wonderful sight. A natural jungle has grown inside the abandoned India United Mill. There are so many hidden gems in Mumbai, we know nothing about them. One could only get a brief glimpse, the watchman warned me not to go further, saying there are snakes inside, but it was clear that a large number of species have grown there over the years. This should be a botanist’s delight. Such green growth should be closely documented.

This is one of the mill sites which has survived the evil onslaught of builders because it belongs to the National Textile Corporation NTC, a Central government undertaking. There are still surviving nine such NTC mills which desperately need to protected in every possible way. This should become a major issue during the coming elections, the municipal in Mumbai and the assembly elections in Maharashtra. Political parties, I notice, have not the faintest idea of this heritage, they need to be roped in and made accountable.

Citizens should demand that a tree census should be conducted, as many trees as possible should be saved along with water bodies if any. These should also be treated as heritage properties, some parts of old mills at least should be preserved. We need to respect history and future generations will thank us .

Union textile minister Piyush Goyal hails from Mumbai, he needs to be told that his redevelopment plan for the mills must save as much of the land as possible for public use. A citizens’ committee with honest, expert people, not government lackeys,should be formed for suggestions and scrutiny.

ITC Central, mentioned earlier, was the venue of a day long conference organised by New Indian Express newspaper, an interaction with leaders of different political parties, beginning with a video interview with deputy chief minister, Devendra Fadanavis.

Incidentally, the hotel is remarkable for its heritage character with plentiful use of teak wood and cane, what a relief from the false aesthetics of glass and steel.

From its swimming pool, one get a glimpse of the chimney tower of India United mill across the road. It is a shame that the Phonex mall authorities want to demolish the chimney in their premises to make way for commercial development, fortunately , some citizens have protested, the tempo should be maintained.

One of the few beautiful natural seasonal sights currently in Mumbai is the St Andrew school ground in Bandra where grass has grown almost chest high along with a number of other plant species. Just leave Nature to its own habitat, don’t interfere and the results can be wonderful. Better to savour the sight before the dry season takes its toll. It would be worth studying if the grass is left to mulch so that the land can be enriched further with the chemistry that develops there.

  People are being denied access to several pubic gardens including  the iconic Horniman Circle Garden  in the Fort area as the work goes on for years which is  inexcusable, shows such gross inefficiency ,callousness.

 Even while the authorities boast of  increasing  infrastructure, they are daily exposed for their  inefficiency,   suburban railway  network and BEST bus service, the main carriers of lakhs of commuters, are being denied  basic amenities,funds, while   nearly a lakh crore  has been allocated for the  metro rail  network which has so far  proved to be a miserable failure and there is little prospect of improvement in the near future.  Conditions are particularly inhuman    on the Central railway suburban system stretching from   CST  Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in the Fort area to   remote areas including Kalyan, Karjat, Kasara.


 Newly opened Metro railway stations,  claimed to be very  posh, are  leaking with a little rain,  access to  some of these stations is poor  with no lighting at all at night

Instead of improving life, the authorities are harming the environment in different ways. In  Navi Mumbai, new Bombay,  holding ponds  wisely  created  some years ago  are being neglected with the result  flooding is occurring. This has drawn  protest from  activists including Swapna Banerjee Guha,  former professor of geography in   Mumbai university.

Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of a book on  public transport

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