Bombay: Transport Infra in 2011 (Part 1/2)

An update is due on the post I wrote about the transport projects expected to be completed in Bombay in 2010. Here's the list I made last year and the status of each project at year-end:

• 5 Flyovers/Elevated Roads
• Hindmata Junction (inaugurated)
• King's Circle (partly open; expected to be fully open by May 2011)
• Lalbaug (scheduled for completion in May 2011)
• Sahar Airport Elevated Road (quite delayed, will not be opened in 2011)
• Suman Nagar (quite delayed, will not be completed in 2011)
• 40-45 new 12-coach rakes (trains) for the suburban network (34 were delivered, 16 more expected in 2011)
• Rail bridge between Mahim and Bandra, with an additional pair of tracks from Santa Cruz to Mahim (bridge completed, status of tracks unclear)
• 1000 buses for BEST (all delivered)
• Terminal 1C at the Santa Cruz domestic airport (inaugurated)
• Monorail between Jacob Circle (Lower Parel) and Wadala (delayed, likely to be completed in 2011)
• Second carriageway of the Bandra-Worli sea link (commissioned)

Bombay lost its status of hosting India's busiest airport to Delhi because of lack of space for expansion. The international airport terminal continues to be modernised and is expected to be ready by 2013. Most significantly, ending years of uncertainty, permission was granted for the construction of a new airport in New Bombay. But it will be atleast 2015 before it becomes operational (how the airport will be connected to the city is all too unclear).

The most crucial element of the city's transport system, the suburban train network saw some improvement. The number of services did not rise much on the Western line, but the conversion of many trains from 9-coach to 12-coach increased capacity by 7-8%. Services increased on the Central and Harbour lines too, though I am not aware of the exact numbers. The conversion from DC voltage to AC voltage (expected to improve speeds of the locals slightly) began, a process that will take 2-3 years to complete. The extension of local train services to the far northern town of Dahanu was not realised, and might not happen in 2011 either.

Roads remained in their sorry state, not helped by the plentiful rains this year. Work continues on the series of flyovers on the Eastern Express Highway and the remaining two flyovers should be opened to traffic by May, as noted above. The Eastern freeway (a 4-lane road along the eastern seaboard) is still another two years away, and work on the Worli-Haji Ali sea link has not yet begun. Among the east-west links, the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road was finally completed. The Santa Cruz-Chembur link is yet to see light of day though. Three other flyovers in the western suburbs (Milan Subway, Barfiwala Lane, Jogeshwari station) are likely to be delayed beyond 2011.

Two long-planned transport projects stubbornly refuse to take off. The Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) is an orphan, with neither the MMRDA nor the BMC really interested in even starting a trial run. The latest announcement is that a pilot might be in place by Feb-end, but I remain sceptical. The water transport project, supposed to provide boats for passengers along the western and eastern coasts, remains a bone of contention between the MMRDA and the MSRDC. Both agencies keep vying to implement the project, but no one is actually doing any visible work to bring it to fruition. I wonder why the MSRDC (Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation) is even involved in a water transport project.

To follow in part 2: Metro, Monorail projects. List of projects expected to be completed in 2011. 
   

Pricing to decongest roads

On most Sunday mornings, I go to a nearby theatre to watch a movie. Some years ago, parking on the road along the mall housing the theatre was free and I always took my car. Later, a parking charge of Rs 20 was introduced. I continued to use my car. Some months ago, the charge was raised to Rs 30. I stopped using my car (mostly), and now take an auto for the journey. There's thus atleast one less car taking up precious road space on Sunday morning. Classic market forces at work - as the price of one good (private car parking) increases, users will switch to a substitute (using autos/taxis or trains/buses).

Given that road space is a very scarce resource in Bombay, and that it is very expensive to create further supply of this resource (flyovers can't be built everywhere), the only solution is for the price of the resource to go up. Parking charges (on designated roads, rather than dedicated parking lots) should ideally go up to a minimum of Rs 100 or so, to really deter the unthinking use of cars in Bombay. Of course, public transport services like buses and trains should be augmented and improved in tandem.

Bombay Time!

Had a lot of spare time at work today (as usual), so was browsing various articles online (as usual, again!). I made a fascinating discovery.

Now, of course, Bombayites get the benefit of 40 minutes of daylight saving, since local time is behind the standard time, resulting in relatively late sunrises and sunsets. Once upon a time though, Bombay time was actually 40 minutes behind IST. Bombay had its own time zone, separate from that of the rest of India, for about half-a-century from 1905 to 1955! [I assume that Bombay here refers to Bombay Presidency of British India and Bombay state of independent India, rather than to the city].

The story is very interesting, and related here.

Further clicking brought me to the Project Gutenberg website, where this document seems to show that "Bombay Time" was one of the originally designated time zones when these were created in a global accord in the 1880s (search "Bombay" in the linked url). And Bombay was the only city that had an entire time zone named after it. Good ego-stroking for these less glorious days!

Bombay: Transport Infra in 2010

Here's a short rundown of all the transport infrastructure Bombay should expect to be completed this year:

• 5 Flyovers/Elevated Roads
• Hindmata Junction (already inaugurated)
• King's Circle
• Lalbaug
• Sahar Airport Elevated Road
• Suman Nagar
• 40-45 new 12-coach rakes (trains) for the suburban network (43 were delivered last year too)
• Rail bridge between Mahim and Bandra, with an additional pair of tracks from Santa Cruz to Mahim
• 1000 buses for BEST
• Terminal 1C at the Santa Cruz domestic airport
• Monorail between Jacob Circle (Lower Parel) and Wadala
• Second carriageway of the Bandra-Worli sea link

I might have missed a few flyovers, I suspect. The rate of infrastructure addition is much less than that of Delhi, of course, and possibly lags even those of Bangalore and Madras. But in the last two years, a visible momentum has built up, with the sea link and the domestic airport being the most conspicuous (albeit elitist) examples. I expect 2011 to be a banner year for progress with the commissioning of the 1st line of the 1st phase of the Bombay Metro and the extension of the Jacob Circle-Wadala monorail to Chembur. Then progress will become inexorable, like in Delhi after the completion of the early stages of its metro. After a rather dreadful 2000-2009 decade, 2010-2019 might just see Bombay's transport rejuvenation :)

Vitality and viability

A nice blog entry in the NY Times about the resilience of New York city and its ability to regenerate itself with changing times ("New York, New York: America's Resilient City"). I of course see parallels to Bombay, a city which, in face of all adversities, has constantly renewed itself during the past 300 years.

The article claims that the primary reason for NY's success is its human capital. "Historically, human capital — the education and skills of a work force — predicts which cities are able to reinvent themselves and which ones are not." I quite agree (and think that even unskilled labour can add much to a city's economic muscle). And that is why Bombay needs to retain its historic welcoming attitude to migrants - both the poor, who dream of becoming rich; and the rich, who dream of becoming richer. From across India and across the world, the greater the number of the enterprising that the city is able to attract, the brighter its future will be. Those who wish to close our city's gates inadvertantly wish to sign its death warrant, I believe.

Anger

The terrorists have at last been defeated. Now comes the time for questions and answers.

The sense of anger amongst the citizenry is palpable. And it is as much directed against the government as the terrorists. The government has completely failed to discharge its duty of protecting citizens. This was not an attack from the blue. For the past many years, terrorist attacks have rocked multiple Indian cities on multiple situations. Bombay was last attacked in July '06. This year, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Bangalore had already been targeted. Bombay was clearly high on the priority-list of the terrorists. RDX had been smuggled into the country via its coast in 1993. Why is Bombay's - Bombay, the home of the Indian Navy's western fleet - coastline still so porous? Why were there no NSG commandos in Bombay? Why was the union home minister on TV announcing the despatch of the black cats for the terrorists to see and plan?

There must be accountability. The union home minister Shivraj Patil has to resign. So does Maharashtra's home minister RR Patil. Perhaps even the Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra.

Unless there is concrete action by the union and state governments in the next few months to improve internal security, the Congress party faces a big rout in the elections in May '09. For many reasons, including its complete inaction on economic reforms and infrastructre creation, and its gross fiscal mismanagement in a time of economic prosperity, I was quite disinclined to recast my vote for the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. That disinclination has almost become a certainty now, and it will take sometime big to change.

Time running out?

I visited Delhi this weekend to attend the wedding of a friend. It was my 4th visit to the city in the last 2 1/2 years, though the 2nd and 3rd visits were both flying ones, bereft of any real opportunity to see the city. While I couldn't see much of Delhi this time either (was confined to the southern parts of the city), whatever little I saw this weekend confirmed my expectations - Delhi is way ahead of Bombay in terms of physical infrastructure.

Cities go through their ups and downs of course. Delhi has had a good run in the last 10 years, largely due to the presence of a chief minister committed to development and interventions by the courts. Bombay on the other hand, has suffered at the hands of politicians who are more interested in changing the name of the city than its nature, in banning dance bars than preventing hooliganism, in restricting the arrival of citizens from other parts of the country than enforcing laws against the encroachment of public property. But be that as it may, at some point, the human capital advantage of Bombay will be outweighed by the infrastructural advantage of Delhi. Commercial capitals tend to stick - witness the centuries-long domination of London and New York of the UK and US respectively (and even Bombay's own domination of the Indian financial scene since atleast the 1850s). But if commerce ever flies away, it will be impossible to bring it back. And that would be a tragedy for the city and its citizens.

A few days ago, I read an extremely interesting article in the Indian Express arguing that it is the politicians, bureaucrats and other government officials who head the city who are outsiders rather than the migrants they denounce. How I wish Bombay were made a union territory (a wish expressed before in this blog, I think)! Perhaps then we would have rule by natives, and some accountability which could lead to rapid progress.

The Travel Itch

Spend much of the afternoon today walking around the Fort area in south Bombay. Saw the buildings housing David Sassoon Library opposite Kala Ghoda (At one time a statue of King George V atop a horse stood there, now it has been shifted to Rani Baug, I think), Bombay University and the High Court. For the first time, I noticed the rounded, semicircular side of the Bombay University building. I like stone buildings generally, and especially those built in Gothic style!

I am now determined to take a vacation in January. Have done some financial planning, and taking the trip (in conjunction with paying off the loan I took to fund my European travels, and replacing the laptop and camera I lost there) into account, I will not be able to begin saving till March 2008. Not too sure how prudent that is, but the travel bug has taken hold of me :) Still have to finalise the destination, but leaning towards Greece (and also considering Australia). There's enough time to plan and work out the details. The only hitch - will my boss give me leave?

Joyous Road

Over the past few weeks, I have been repeatedly asked why I walk from Churchgate station to and fro my office, or why I always to prefer to meet my friends on Marine Drive. My simple answer - "I like this road!" If one stands at the flyover near Marine Lines station, the view along both ends of this sweeping stretch of concrete is breathtaking. On the one end is the tall and varying skyline of Nariman Point, with the shorter, more uniform apartments of Navy Nagar further beyond. Closer to the flyover are the cute and pleasing curves of the Art Deco buildings. Walking towards Charni Road, the sea constantly in view and inviting me to get lost, sometimes in deeply personal memories and fantasies, and at other times in thoughts of the wider world beyond, various gymkhanas with their cricket matches and other going-ons come into sight. All the while Chowpatty gets bigger and clearer, and the Malabar Hill always beckons - looking crowded, yet green and peaceful. I remember that occasionally whenever we were going home from my dad's office years ago, the neon signs displayed in front of the buildings in Malabar Hill used to fascinate me. I still like watching them at night :)

Marine Drive signifies all that I love about Bombay - the hustle and bustle, the shining lights, the never-ending stream of people, the personal space that still exists despite the crowds, ruthless commerce managing to produce things of such beauty and even grandeur and the sea lapping the city's shores and inviting its inhabitants to think big. There is much that's wrong with Bombay, and I don't want to gloss over these shortcomings. But walking along Marine Drive, everything seems right. And I fall in love with Bombay all over again :)

Visit to Elephanta

On Tuesday I went to Elephanta Island. The caves on this island, a UNESCO World Heritage site, feature many 7-10^th century rock carvings of Shiva in various forms. I am amazed that I only ventured to the island now, despite living in Bombay all these years. Guess when one knows a place will be home for a considerable period of time, visiting the touristy places is not a priority. Haji Ali remains and I hope to tick it this year.

One reaches Elephanta by a ferry from the Gateway of India. I was really surprised that it takes about an hour and a half to reach the island. On the way, the entire eastern seaboard of Bombay comes into view. As compared to the western coast, which is lined with posh residential or commercial high-rises and lovely beaches, the eastern sea face presents a much more varied face. Many ships and cranes come into view soon after the Gateway – a reminder that Bombay remains one of India’s largest and busiest ports. Later one can view the tall chimney of what is presumably BPCL’s oil refinery near Chembur. Also visible is a white dome surrounded by green hills – BARC’s atomic facility, I think. The residential colonies are ubiquitous of course.

The island itself is very small. The cave temples are located on top of a little hillock (100-150 m high max). The carvings are huge, but quite badly damaged. Nevertheless, some are quite beautiful. I did not know that Shiva is depicted and worshipped in so many different forms, including feminine forms (Kamadeva, I think) and an androgynous form. But on the whole, I was not terribly impressed with the caves.

The views are a different matter. Bombay looks lovely from afar – especially the sky scrapers of the south. I took a snap of the city’s Bombay Central area, in which the sea is visible on both sides of the land. I love it!

On the other side, I could see the greener and less constructed New Bombay area (a friend who stays in Vashi told me later that I was looking at Uran). I don’t know if the proposed Nhava-Sewri bridge (connecting Bombay to New Bombay) will stand to the south of Elephanta or north, but either way, if it ever comes into being, the sight will be stunning.