Maximum City Mumbai Has Maximum Infrastructure Problems
Mumbai is truly a Maximum City, with over a population of 20 million struggling to grow and succeed. This is a city where poverty, wealth, crime, romance, corruption and beauty co-exist. Life is difficult for many people in Mumbai except for the few who live in the posh Mumbai suburbs or South Mumbai. People who came here for creating a life of their choice were once willing to travel long distances in jam packed local trains and roads with heavy traffic. The Maximum City is now facing serious issues with regards to its infrastructure making it increasingly difficult to live in the city.
Mumbai losing its sheen
The financial hub of the country, Mumbai was once the land of opportunities and attracted people from all over the country who wanted to come here and make their dreams come true. However, the city’s infrastructure growth rate is lagging far behind the growth rate of its population. The city is losing its name as the land of opportunities with cities such as Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad offering better opportunities for people. Even cities such as Jaipur and Chandigarh are rapidly modernizing and outshining Mumbai with their metro lines and infrastructure, while Mumbai roads are choked and slums are cropping up in every piece of land available.
Civic authorities agree that the roads are congested. But due to lack of availability of land, it is hard to expand the road network. The local trains too are overloaded. With these in view, Mumbai is in desperate need of a mass rapid transit system. Civic authorities have built flyovers and a sea-link to reduce commute time between different areas. The city is also coming up with the Eastern Expressway. However, the current infrastructure has not kept pace with the rapidly growing population.
The problem is the pace of development
Mumbai has an excellent strategic plan for its infrastructure growth, which is technically impressive. MMRDA has taken into consideration several factors while planning infrastructure. It has explored every option. The existing as well as proposed projects are very well planned ambitious projects. However, the problem lies with the pace at which these projects are implemented. Several other cities are beating Mumbai in developing a mass rapid transit system. While several major metros in India such as Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Ahmedabad are adding new traffic infrastructure, several projects are still at the blueprint stage in Mumbai.
Projects haven’t moved
Mumbai had several grand projects to improve the transport infrastructure of the city. However, most of them are either moving at a snail’s pace or shelved due to issues with environment clearances, right of way or other civic issues. Some of the projects are the Mumbai Metro Line-I and the Mumbai Monorail which are nearing completion after a long time. Some projects which haven’t yet taken off are the Navi Mumbai Airport, extension of Bandra-Worli Sealink and the ambitious MTHL. While the Jaipur metro took only three years to take off, the Mumbai Metro Line-I took seven years to complete.
Mumbai has its problems
Mumbai has its own problems which affect the development of the infrastructure projects. For starters, the city is dense. Then there are litigations that cause delays. Delays lead to huge cost escalation and further problems. The ambitious MTHL failed to get any bids due to concerns over its financial viability. Disputes between Reliance Infrastructure and the government are leading to a possible termination of Metro Phase II.
However, the bigger problems that plague Mumbai infrastructure are land acquisition, bureaucracy and approvals. There are also conflicting views and political agendas that hamper the projects. According to the state government, private players are hesitant to take projects due to economic slowdown and low confidence.
Whatever the problems Mumbai is currently facing, it may soon loose sheen as the land of opportunities if its infrastructure doesn’t catchup with that of other major metros.
