Column

Have you seen the Bandra-Worli Sea Link yet? I haven’t. I didn’t want to add to the chaos by going for a joy ride. In the end, a bridge is a bridge is a bridge and I’ll cross the bridge when I come to it. Looking at all the hoopla at the Sea Link’s inauguration, you would think that once Sonia Gandhi had cut the ribbon all of Bombay’s traffic problems were now solved. They aren’t.

All that’s been done is that part of the daily commute for some Bombayites has been reduced, both in distance and in tine. If you add up the total man hours saved, it would add up to an impressive figure and probably justify the Sea Link’s massive cost. But Worli isn’t most commuters’ ultimate destination: the central business district of Churchgate-Flora Fountain- Nariman Point- Ballard Estate is.

Nor is Bandra the end point for commuters going back home: some will go there, others way beyond to Versova and its environs. To be really effective, the Sea Link thus has to be a complete link, not a piece-meal one. It has to go in fact from Versova to Nariman Point, with intakes and outtakes at intermediate points.

The cost will be humongous, yet even when this ultimate Sea Link is complete, it will only partially ease the pain of today’s daily commute. That’s because, as we all know, most of the city does not travel by car, but by train, so it’s the suburban railway service that needs a total overhaul. I am not a genius for saying this; any schoolboy in Bombay knows this by heart.

So what does Mamatadidi give the suburban rail system, what locals call ‘the local’? Money for platform 6A at Borivli, a promise to make VT station ‘world class’ (whatever that means) and another promise to make 38 suburban stations into ‘Adarsh’ stations (which means they will have drinking water, catering service, waiting rooms and dormitories, especially for women).

This, to me, is missing the point altogether. Go ahead and improve the stations, but remember that the commuter won’t be impressed or happy, because his priority is to spend as little time as possible at any station, Adarsh or otherwise. He wants to get on a train, pronto. And reach his destination as quickly as possible. What he would regard as a huge bonus would be if his journey were to be made less frantic, and dare we say it, a little bit comfortable.

It’s time we lobbied the prime minister for a railway minister from Bombay. We might then get the 12 car rakes project included in MUTP Phase II; we might get a Grant Road Terminus to ease traffic on the Western Railway; we might get budgetary allocations for Phase I of the MUTP which is still struggling for a lifeline.

This isn’t chauvinism, it’s common sense. Why spend fortunes on easing car traffic when the world over it’s been found that cars aren’t the solution to traffic congestion, they are the problem? If the city had a comfortable suburban train system, crowded, but bearably crowded, with some air-conditioned coaches included, wouldn’t motorists happily leave their cars home? If this isn’t done, it’s unfair to put restrictions on motorists to commute by car as has been suggested. (certain car numbers on certain days and so on).

But since drastic solutions are needed, why not take the obvious one?Which is to reduce the number of taxis and auto-rickshaws plying their trade? Bombay has a total of 1,50,000 of them, whereas a spread out city like New York has only 25,000 cabs.

Since it’s unrealistic to expect the authorities to suddenly de-licence so many taxis and autos, here is a suggestion: have fixed days for them to be on the road depending on their registration numbers, the idea mooted for cars, now made applicable for vehicles on hire. It will be hard on their drivers economically, but it’s for the greater good. The government could even think of giving a VRS scheme to the drivers out of a Sea Link toll.