Comment

Someone suggested that they name the Peddar Road flyover after Lata Mangeshkar. They were joking, of course. But the remark showed how skewed the whole debate has now become. In fact, on a television show last week, the anchor had a one-track agenda, and any effort I made to move the discussion beyond Mangeshkar was pushed aside.

However eminent she is, and however highly we regard her, the flyover has only marginally to do with her, doesn’t it? As marginally as with the other residents of Peddar Road: their views, as affected people, must be taken into account, but the final decision has to be taken for the overall benefit of the population at large, not for the benefit of any one special interest group. That is the general rule democracies follow all over the world, and it’s the rule that is presumably adhered to in India (Or is it? I don’t remember any public debate about the flyover on the crowded—and depressed—Mohammad Ali Road. Since the flyover was the longest in the country, its effect was felt by a very large number of people. Similarly, it’s unlikely that there were any consultations with families displaced by the Narmada and similar dams: it’s presumed that the poor do not have any opinions).

Is the Peddar Road flyover necessary? Unfortunately, yes. But it’s hardly the panacea to Mumbai’s traffic problems. At best, it’s a quick-fix solution, much needed in the short-term to cope with the terrible pile up which occurs right through the day at the approach to Haji Ali junction, on Peddar Road itself, on Warden Road, at Kemp’s Corner and at Girgaum Chowpatty. If other flyovers are an indication, there should follow a period of considerable easing of traffic flow in these vital areas.

But this is only a temporary solution. Any city which isn’t new, and which, therefore, did not anticipate the success of the internal combustion engine, finds its road system unable to deal with the exponential growth in traffic.

Since we are at the beginning of a consumer boom, we will have more and more cars, many of which will be bigger and bigger, rushing confidently into a sunny future on roads built in the past, for the past.

The long term solutions do not include extending the Bandra-Worli Sea Link to Versova on one side and Navy Nagar on the other. That is a medium-term solution. Ultimately, every developed city in the world learns that it has too many cars and finds that it needs to discourage their use. Some cities do so by numbers (Singapore’s odd-number plate, even-number plate days), some by an entry tax (London’s recent innovation), most do so simply by making parking scarce and expensive. But all of them do this after making available to motorists the viable option of a fast and reasonably comfortable form of public transport. Where would New York be without its Subway? And London without its Underground, Paris without its Metro or Moscow without its fabled system of comfortable trains rushing from one chandeliered platform to another?

Most of all, where would Mumbai be without its suburban rail system? Yet, in all the discussions about our traffic chaos, no one even refers to it: it was there; it carried thousands, now it carries lakhs, without any but cosmetic changes being made to it. Which motorist would want to travel by it? Being packed like a sardine is a hackneyed phrase, used often to describe Mumbai’s suburban rail travel, but that too is outdated: even sardines have the cushion of olive oil in their cans.

The augmentation and improvement of the suburban rail system has to be Priority Number One, but only now have discussions begun on the subject. And being Argumentative Indians, the debate is sure to last a decade or two, especially because any extensive additions to the system will need hard decisions. Like displeasing affected residents, displacing slum dwellers and hawkers, especially those who have illegally occupied land right next to existing railway lines. It will involve cutting down trees, digging up roads and may be even razing built-up structures. How do you expect these tough decisions to be taken by a government which dithers for two years over a mere flyover only because there are high-profile objections?

As it happens, these aren’t the only firm decisions required. There are a host of others, major and minor, including reducing the number of licensed taxis and autos from the present 1,50,000 to around 25,000 and building more flyovers at bottle-necks.

But firm decisions is what governments are all about. A chalta hai attitude will leads us to this ultimate irony: there will be, in future, no road space for chalna hai.