It is my 9th Month in Mumbai. It’s the time of Delivery! I came in November 2010. Since then, I am experiencing huge crowds everywhere. Be it road, train, shopping mall – anywhere. Countless peoples around you can be found in neighborhood –though they are busy doing their ‘things’. On Jan. 26, 2011 Mumbai Local authorities and Railways tried to work on giving some comfort to passengers travelling in Local trains. All slow and fast trains were converted to 12 bogies, from 9 bogies trains, on both Western and Central Lines. But, ever growing population of Mumbai had witnessed no ease on Train crowd. Per cubic meter density in the train remains same. Same story is on Mumbai Roads. Cars are becoming cheaper and average economy of Mumbai increases, so every house owner carries more than one Vehicle. I wish Roads could be made of Rubbers or Elastic, but Roads are made up of Cement and Tar and are limited. It cannot accommodate the ever growing populations of car. The Worli-Hazi Ali road is so populated that sometimes I feel walking on road is better than driving my bike. Having said some burning problems of Mumbai let me try to find some solutions.
Trains: The easiest solution could be increase no. of trains plying on various routes. But when I stand on the Dadar Flyover and watch the running trains, I see no possibility of new trains. Tracks are already overloaded. We must not forget that railway tracks are made up of Iron bars and have a stress limit. They are not immortal. Unless properly maintained and replaced, tracks may develop cracks. Imagine a fully crowded train at 9 AM or 6.30 PM meets an accident, due to track problem. Recently a train accident near Kanpur experienced 80+ deaths, though it was an express train without much crowd. Imagine a Mumbai Local colliding to another Local. I am sure death toll will be more than 500. I think the only solution is Government’s intervention. We may need to categorize all companies and industries in various zones. All zones should be asked to manage their office start and close times. If all office starts working at 9 AM, obviously all trains from 8-9 AM would be over crowded. I think companies should be divided into 5 zones and each should be asked to follow timing like 9 AM – 5.30 PM, 9.30 AM – 6 PM, 10 AM – 6.30 PM, 10:30 AM – 7 PM and 11 AM – 7:30 PM. This will give breather to the employees and workers. The 5th slot can be given to service industries which do business with European and American Companies and customers.
Roads: The best solution would be if all car owners either leave their cars or share their cars with others. 90% of car running on roads have only ONE passenger. The ‘rich’ ones do maintain a driver also. Sharing of Cars can be a solution, but no one wants to lose its privacy. Again I would look towards Maharastra Government. An active government can do miracles – provided it wants to do something. BEST already runs 1000’s of buses on Mumbai roads. It can have additional AC buses running on the roads, for the ELITE class population of Mumbai. An AC bus has a seating capacity of 30 – 36+ standing capacity of another 10 – 16. Means a total of 40+ people can be transported in those buses. One AC bus consumes the space of 4 cars on the road, but can accommodate passengers of 32 cars (I am assuming that 10 peoples share their car). So, one AC bus has a capability of replacing 28 (32 - 4 = 28) cars, from road. If a total of 1000 buses are put on Mumbai roads, plying from every corner – it has a capability to replace 28000 cars from Road (At least during Office Hours). I don’t see a crowded Mumbai, if 28000 cars don’t come on Road. But, Mumbaikar’s are needed to be educated on this. I would further elaborate on the benefits of reducing car. Pollution due to smoke will go down. Pollution quotient of Mumbai will reduce drastically. The air used by Mumbaikar’s to breathe, would be more pure. On economic front, assume a person drives a car for approx. 16 km and back - In total, he drives 30-40 Km a day. Average fuel efficiency of a Car is 12-15 Km/L. So, for 40 Km of drive - Diesel requirement is of Rs 120, or petrol of Rs 180. A travel in AC bus would cost a maximum of Rs 100.
Other option could be the use of Taxi’s. Non AC taxi’s cost Rs 10 per Km, and AC taxi’s cost Rs 16 per Km. Choice is yours! Cost is little high, but can be managed during urgency.
Average Mumbaikar’s can be seen losing weight on Sea shores, parks, gyms and grounds. Thousands of people can be seen collectively jog or run in grounds, in morning and evening. But, those same mumbaikar’s can’t walk 1 Km for shopping! They may jog for hours, but they prefer not to visit mall or multiplexes without Car, even if it is in vicinity! I have a strong feel that we mumbaikar’s are responsible of increasing the crowd and pollution. Our one small step can help in a big way. Unfortunately the initiative is not taken by Government too… The most educated ‘BITS Pilani graduate engineer’ Chief Minister of Maharashtra is not using a single iota of his own brain. Ironically Mumbai is dealt by Delhi. I am sympathetic for common man here. An outsider cannot understand insider’s pain. Thackrey’s who claim to understand the pain, too are busy in doing politics over it.
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