Commuting in our city will no longer be the same. But trust us, it will be for the better. Rajendra Aklekar explains how.
Back on track
This is a story of how the traditional century-old modes of transit in Mumbai are on a course change. A change for good. The traditional dust-brown and yellow Mumbai local has given way to the new swanky violet-coloured train that has additional passenger features, confining to international carbon emission norms and runs faster.
The old trains were capable of a maximum speed of 85km/h in regular service. Most of these rakes were built by Jessop (Kolkata) and ICF (Perambur). On 12 November 2007, the first of the new trains with upgraded facilities was inducted into the fleet of the Western Railways under the 4,500 crore phase one of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and since then the trains are being upgraded. A few of the old ones still run on all the three lines and should soon make way for newer ones.
City’s new Fiat: Hatchbacks
The ubiquitous Premier Padmini, Mumbai’s Fiat taxi, will soon be passé. It’s making space for the Ford and the Honda. The Fiat model, the result of an agreement between PAL and the Italian company Fiat, was first manufactured in 1964. The death of the Padmini became a given when the transport department of the government of Maharashtra issued a notification in 2008, imposing a ban on vehicles older than 25 years to curb the pollution in Mumbai.
Premier Automobile Ltd (PAL) stopped manufacturing the Padmini in 2000. Those still running do so with spares. This year in May, the Maharashtra government issued another notification reducing the age limit of the Padmini to 20. There are more than 10,000 such cars running in the city, says union leader Anthony Quadros. “The new models will be Santros, Maruti Wagon R and Dzire. The Fiat will die its own death,” a taxi union office bearer said.
The cool bus
The rattling old Ashok Leyland bus with two doors is on its way out. They will make way for an air-conditioned fleet of buses that confirm to pollution norms. This came after the union ministry of road transport made a policy shift in the last decade of encouraging public transport to cut down the number of private vehicles.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) fund the city buses and that’s how the smallest of municipal bodies got the most elegant buses for public transport, including Mercs, Volvos and MarcoPolos. “Of the total fleet of 4,000 buses, 300 are air-conditioned, a few non-AC Tata Star buses and 800 buses were provided by the JNNURM,” a BEST official said. “The union ministry of road transport has laid down specifications for city buses and we try to stick to the prescribed norms. Even Maharashtra’s state transport undertaking has begun to ply fancy intercity buses, changing the face of public transport in Mumbai, once and for all.
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