Mumbai

Men at wreck

All of Mumbai's arterial roads leading to south Mumbai have been dug up simultaneously. Why? Don't ask BMC or MMRDA, they're as clueless

Sudhir Suryawanshi/Geeta Desai

Posted On Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 01:16:11 AM

Seven arterial roads that connect the island city to the western suburbs and beyond, four government agencies that have no coordination betwene each other, hours of delay and a near-breakdown of the traffic system is what commuters are being forced to deal with for the past few months.

Even as we speak, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and the traffic police, are all busy doing their own job.

In fact, they are so busy doing it, that they forgot to co-ordinate with each other before digging up the same road, at the same time, with no thought spared for the harried commuter or pedestrian.

Dr Ambedkar Road, P D’Mello Road, NM Joshi Marg, E Moses Road, S V Road, CR Marg, Lala Lajpat Rai Marg are in a state of utter chaos, as flyovers, skywalks, road repairs and sewage maintenance work have all commenced simultaneously. And no one knows when they will ever get to the finishing line.

A senior traffic expert admitted, “The city’s traffic system has totally collapsed. All alternate and bypass roads which connect to south Mumbai are under construction. There is no single road where traffic can be diverted for a smooth flow.

Heavy vehicles are banned during the peak hours, yet, you can see many such vehicles plying in peak hours, leading to chaos. Instead of managing traffic at the junctions, traffic cops watch the mayhem from the sidelines. Development and infrastructure cannot come at the cost traffic snarls and chaos.”

Sudhir Badami, former member, Road Monitoring Committee, set up by the High Court, demanded that the state government should immediately revive the Unified Mumbai Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMMTA) which was formed under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to review all city projects and meet the multiple government bodies to discuss the issues.

Interestingly, Badami revealed that all government bodies do meet regularly, but key decisions also depend upon the power equations among the senior officials.

“The revival of UMMTA will help them sit together and access the detailed documents of their proposed and under construction projects. Here, they can meet and address the issues and come up with solutions. It will help them to have transparency so that at any given time, there is only one project going on one road,” said Badami.

UMMTA, formed in February 2008, had only a couple of meetings and after which things fizzled out. They don’t even have a proper office to sit and discuss critical issues and projects.

“All government bodies should mandatorily meet every week to discuss the projects and its related problems. Also, the BMC road department should make internet-based management system. So that the citizens can easily access information on the ongoing projects in the city,” suggested Badami.

MMRDA spokesperson Dilip Kawatkar said,   “We do send our plans and designs for the approval and projects are started only after we receive an approval.”

BMC Chief Engineer, (Roads and Bridges) Arun Ralkar said, “Usually traffic wing of roads department considers every request from different authority and gives permissions accordingly.” When asked about the multiples excavations done by the different agencies at a time including BMC on the same road, Ralkar said, “Permission for the work is given after the due consideration of the traffic flow.”

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Men at wreck

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