Mishap on road, mishap in the sea,  few are safe in Mumbai

 Two serious mishaps in Mumbai , one in the  thickly populated ,  neglected Kurla area, and the other in the  sea in the Mumbai harbour  took  a heavy toll of innocent lives in the last few days.  The Indian State is  thought to be squarely responsible , it also shows the utter failure of our transport, mobility  policy and shows   how bad we are in using technology. The second mishap is more worrying, it was caused mainly by  what appears to be dangerous driving of a speed boat  of the Indian Navy.

Despite the heavy presence of  the Naval high command in Mumbai,  it was left to  civilians, public spirited  seafarers  to  rush and rescue  , prevent more deaths of passengers  of  a  ferry  going to  the world heritage site of  Elephanta. By all accounts the Naval machinery reached much later.

Sanjay More (54), the  driver of a   contract  bus of BEST who fatally mowed down nine persons and injured 42 others outside Kurla railway station (W) last   was operating an electric vehicle for the first time in his life that day.

The same morning, the company Evey Trans, which had  given the bus to the BEST Undertaking, had asked More to take three rounds in the electric vehicle before he was assigned to operate the bus on Route no. 332 from Kurla station (W) to Agarkar Chowk, Andheri station on the east side. Strangely enough, the police had not even filed an FIR against the company for jeopardizing the lives of passengers by putting a person totally inexperienced in handling a heavy electric vehicle behind the wheel.

  Visuals of the mishap of the  boat tragedy in which at least 14 people were killed  show in no unmistakable terms that  the  Naval boat was completely out of control,  the man at the helm  seemed to be performing stunts, or  scaring the   passenger boat . the mishap was waiting to happen, bound to happen.

  The naval boat had no business to be in this passenger area, it has a  vast sea cost to  conduct trials, manoeuvres and what not.  Passenger boat companies have been complaing for years about dangerous  driving by he Naval personnel.

As for the death toll caused by the BEST bus, the contract system, privatisation, poor working conditions , poor  wages, training of drivers and conductors ,  hired  by  private contractors, a wrong , overrated technology of electrical vehicles is responsible.

There are two fleets, vehicles in the system, those owned by the  BEST  undertaking itself and the  others are owned by private contractors . the BEST has  a long tradition of  proper discipline, staff training, drivers are trained for two months in its special  centre in Dindoshi in the western suburb. The  private contractors have no other infrastructure  of their own, no depot, staff are temporary, not enough repair  and training facilties  and so on.

  Over the last several years  the authorities have  virtually sabotaged  BEST’s  own  efficient undertaking, denied it funds, vastly reduced its own fleet while lavishing  money on private contractors letting them run  most buses. This is the height of inefficiency, bad management and the roots lie in  the wrong implementation ,   lack of control over  of privatisation..

  There have been multiple complaints of electric cars and buses for a long time, electric buses are also very expensive, yet the government wants to induct them because there is a big lobby of this sector in the  central government.

   The authorities  bring in  a shining, so  called  modern electric vehicle tehnology, very expensive it is,  without training the staff who are used to old  vehicles, these old vehicles were easy to use, not so electric vehicles. So the driver gets completely confused, loses control. Formerly a driver, cleaner could   set right ordinary faults, now  they cannot, so often the bus does not even start.  This has happened frequently  in the running of modern Volvo buses used in long distance travel.

 In general vehicle manufacturers are notorious  over decades for not taking enough safety measures in  motor cars and buses.

 Whatever the findings of the inquiry into the mishap, the  State’s responsibility  cannot be denied. I have been writing on transport for a long time , it can be safely said that   road crash investigation is neglected in India, the police  and  RTO  have little scientific training. It is a specialised job.

Those  in the driver’s  seat in the State have themselves  have lost control  over the last few years. Urban governance was never  so inefficient,  unimaginative . Everything is in a mess

  The Mumbai metropolitan region development authority  MMRDA  and the metro rail authorities have their head offices  in the shining  corporate district of Bandra Kurla complex   half way between the  site of the accident at Kurla and  Bandra suburban railways  station

  MMRDA is not able to solve problems  even a  few hundred metres   in its own vicinity. Traffic is in a mess already  even in BKC and last year it appointed a consultant  to solve the problem.

   Approaching the BKC metro  railway station  or coming out of it on the main road itself  is a  a death trap.  The Metro railway  has  proved a disastrous failure so far, it was touted as a technological   marvel, a symbol of progress and modernity, the authorities have fallen flat on their face.  There is  massive public anger, disappointment over this.   A fire occurred in the BKC metro station itself  last month, trains come to a halt underground, people have no clue how to come out, even the app of buying  tickets does not work.

   I see the mess often, I live not too far away on the  western side of Bandra.

    All this has serious consequences for  other cities, towns in Maharashtra because  if there is  such failure at the headquarter  itself, what kind of  guidance can  these cities and their civic bodies expect . and  the authorities in Mumbai are in fact   are a big threat because  they are imposing themselves on other local bodies, depriving them of their  sovereignty granted under the  Constitution.

   Those in power themselves need to  control their speed and driving.  Mr Devendra Phadnavis, then deputy  chief minister,  defied all speed restrictions and drove a car on the Samruddhi highway  before its official opening. By his side was chief minister Eknath Shinde. This highway itself is a notorious death trap.

 Most of our highways are also a death trap so badly they are built, experts have repeatedly warned.

    The BEST  bus  has always been a  symbol of pride  for  millions over generations, their lives ,memories are closely connected.  It was also exemplary for the whole country. When Morarji  Desai was the Prime Minister  during the Janata party rule, he brought in  Mr P.G. Patankar, former BEST general manager,to  set right the rot in  Delhi  transport.

Over the last few years the BEST has been systematically  weakened by  the local authorities and the government, it has been denied  funds, even a few thousand crores when a lakh of  crore rs.  are being lavished on the  Metro  rail.    The Metro 3 line, the boast of  the government, carries just about 20,000 in the whole day , less than  one twentieth of its capacity. The BEST buses, just  twenty of them can carry those many commuters in a day. The whole  BEST  system   carries  nearly thirty lakh daily which is really a marvel in a way, the performance is far far more impressive   than of the monumentally expensive Metro. This is despite the severe neglect of  BEST.  People have to wait for almost  an hour sometimes, so few are the buses and there is overcrowding.

Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of the book Traffic in the era of climate change