[sustran] Re: Imrpvoving quality of life through World Bank support Mumbai PM10

kisan mehta kisansbc at vsnl.com
Tue Jun 4 12:21:38 JST 2002


Dear Clean Air Initiative and Sustran colleagues and John,,

With reference to John Core's email, we can say conditions in 
Mumbai are not very different from the ones obtaining in Delhi,
Agra, Dhaka or any city of the developing countries.  Their 
impact on living beings in Mumbai, the most congested city 
of the world, are worse.  

We trust you have seen our message sent yesterday giving 
excerpts from two publications (1) Environment Status of 
BrihanMumbai 2000=2001 and Consolidated Environmental Assessment published by the Project Managers for the Mumbai
Urban Transport Project Development.  These inform on the 
pollution levels and road-pavement conditions. 

Mumbai generates 6,000 tons plus of solid waste a day, the composition of which is 

compostible matter 37%; sand and fine earth 35%; Paper and cardboaed 15%; Plastics 11% and others 2%.
        
Our contention is that mitigation of pollution and improvement in 
the environment conditions should be the object of any development programme as well as the concern of the MUTP Project Managers 
and also of the World Bank now that it is extending a loan of $ 850 million for the MUTP.  However from subprojects forming a part of 
the MUTP it is getting clearer that that is not their concern.  No 
effort for reducing pollution levels is being made, no programme 
for reducing the number of vehicles on road is proposed, no 
measure to reduce fatality of pedestrians on roads is included.  
The Project Managers and now the Bank have rejected citizen 
proposal to take up extensive pavement construction  

In fact the MUTP includes "in order to reduce the delays and congestion and improve the traffic flows, an adaptive area control 
system has been designed for the Island City (area 60 km resident population 3.4 million, working population 6 million) of Mumbai.The system will include state-of-the-art computer controlled traffic signal system .....".  When read along with "To reduce the conflicts between pedestrians and the vehicles, which often result in assidents, and to imrpove pedestrian safety, a number of pedestrian grade separation meassures have been proposed on major corridors in the Island City and suburbs" one can see that the idea is to eliminate pedestrians 
from roads to provide to vehicle drivers freedom to drive without interruption.   How can any development programme include 
pedestrian subways making citizens go down and walk up for the convenience of motorists in a situation where many roads do 
not have pavements and where cars are allowed to be parked on pavements if they exist. Where parking was hitherto totally banned, parking of literally  a thousand vehicles incongested area has been created as apart of theproject. 

The World Bank and other multilateral agencies have of late shown greater regard for protection of the environment and improvement 
of the standard of life for human beings.  Citizens from borrowing countries are grateful to learn that the Bank would provide money 
to damage the environment and increase human hardship.  It  
appears that these fine sentiments have failed to make impression 
on the Bank when it extended a loan of $ 850 million to the MUTP.  Concern of citizens as stake holders is continuously ignored.  
Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta and Priya Salvi
Save Bombay Committee
620 Jame Jamshed Road, Dadar East,
Mumbai 400 014 
     
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: John Core 
  To: kisansbc at vsnl.com 
  Cc: kurban_keshvani at golden.com 
  Sent: Monday, June 03, 2002 10:33 PM
  Subject: Mumbai PM10



  While I have not been to Mumbai, I suspect it is not very different from Delhi, Agra or Dhaka Bangladesh. In each of these cities, it is common to see construction materials in the streets, trackout of mud and dirt from the streetside onto paved surfaces and unpaved roads and lots all of which generate dust resulting from traffic movement. The dust is usually a major component of SPM and PM10, especially when monitoring is done at streetside locations. Even at monitoring locations well removed from traffic, soil dust is typically a major component of SPMa nd PM10 in large urban centers.

  If one of the objectives of the MUTP is to reduce SPM/PM10 concentrations (as I suspect it is), control of transport-related dust will be of critical importance, especially during the dry winter months. The seasonal trends in SPM/PM10 concentrations are, in addition to increased wind speed and atmospheric mixing, a result of rainfall suppression of dust. If you watch carefully, you will see clear air (good visibility) immediately following rainfall followed by increasing haziness as the roads dry out, mud is tracked onto the roadways and the dust becomes resuspended.

  There are some simple means of measuring the percentage of dust on SPM or PM10 filters that have been widely used to quantify the amount of dust and other sources. You may find such studies to be of great value to your program.

  Regards.. John Core, Core Environmental Consulting. Portland, Oregon USA

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