[sustran] Flyovers aggrevating problems for citizens in Mumbai

[kisan mehta]

Dear Sustran Friends,

Mumbai (population 12 million area 434 sq km) is
surrounded by the sea on three sides.

Traffic problems are perennial.   Suburban railway and public
transport services  provide over 10 million journeys a day
(88% of the total) while about 1 million personal cars, taxies
and three wheeler rikshaws provide the remainder.  Personal
vehicles occupy 85% of the limited road space bringing the
average speed of public buses to 13 km per hour.

The Government started constructing 52 flyovers and
elevated roads spending Rs 20 billion (Rs 48 make one US $)
cutting down pavements and taking over public spaces. This
has increased hardship to citizens.  Now it is embarking on a
sealink estimated to cost Rs 40 to 80 billion.   Many more
vehicles are now on the road and parked on roads and
pavements.  Mumbai has the highest road fatality rate in
the world.  Pollution levels are already very high.

The longest elevated rad was commissioned on the 1st
May 2002, We enclose herewith two reports published in
the Times of India dated 05.05.2002 which will give you
a fair idea of citizen feelings and reactions. ..

The Government has cut down budgetary allocation on public
health and education and is withholding dues to public servants
to pay for flyovers etc. It has developed Mumbai Urban
Transport Project(MUTP) estimated to cost Rs 60 billion.
Though the MUTP is claimed to be a project to support
public transport and contain pollution, it is infact an
extension of the govt plan to promote motorisation.

The World Bank executives have helped in finalising the
MUTP as the Bank is extending a loan of Rs 45 billion. Thus
the Bank would be supporting motorisation at the cost of
public transport.  Save Bombay Committee is working out an
alternate programme aimed at supporting public transport and
correcting the damage to the environment resulting from the
construction of flyovers etc and providing pavements to reduce
road fatalities.  We look forward to your support in pursuing
the proposals with the Bank.  Best wishes.

Priya Salvi and Kisan Mehta

City's high fly in the face of logic
ANSHIKA MISRA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SUNDAY, MAY 05, 2002  2:19:51 AM ]
MUMBAI: Vikram Karande is a man who likes to form his own opinions.

So on Friday morning, the 32-year-old bank employee gave up his coveted
window seat in a packed local train and hopped into a cab outside Byculla
station to check out the hype about the city's latest offering to
motorists-the J J Hospital-Crawford Market viaduct.
The taxi revved up the slope and building balconies whizzed by. But as the
needle touched 60 kmph, Mr Karande felt a twinge of envy.
What logic is this that the minuscule number of commuters fortunate enough
to travel in cars have things so easy?'' he asked in disgust.
Mr Karande isn't alone in his bafflement. Traffic experts also can't quite
understand why the mandarins of Mantralaya have ignored the public transport
system -which is used every day by 84 per cent of Mumbaikars-and
concentrated instead on capital intensive flyover projects that benefit the
17 per cent of road commuters who use private transport.
These private vehicles take 84 per cent of the city's road space.
"The policy makers have paid only lip sympathy to the plight of millions of
commuters who use BEST buses and suburban local trains,'' says P G Patankar,
former director of Pune-based Central Institute of Road Transport.
On the other hand, the government has smoothened every speed breaker in the
path of the Rs 1,500-crore project to build 50 flyovers-43 have sprung up
since 1998.
The thrust on flyovers runs contrary to the conclusions of several recent
studies that have emphasised the need to strengthen public transport
system-especially the suburban train network, which carries 46 per cent of
the city's commuters.
Even if they don't benefit from the flyovers, some users of public transport
end up paying for them. For instance, the 3,000-odd BEST buses, which carry
more than 42 lakh passengers on average every day, do not ply on most of the
newly-built flyovers.
Yet, the transport undertaking still has to pay the petrol and diesel cess
levied to recover costs of the mammoth infrastructure projects.
" The benefits, if any, have come as mere spin-offs," said BEST general
manager Rahul Asthana.   This means that traffic on the roads below the
flyovers is a little lighter,giving the bumbling reds more space to move.
This has reduced travel time on some routes by 8 to 10 minutes. Despite the
huge sums spent on flyovers, the government has rejected the BEST's request
to waive passenger tax.

     Flyovers soar over commuters' woes
ANSHIKA MISRA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SUNDAY, MAY 05, 2002  2:08:19 AM ]

MUMBAI: The thrust on flyovers in Mumbai runs contrary to the conclusions of
several recent studies that have emphasised the need to strengthen public
transport system-especially the suburban train network, which carries 46 per
cent of the city's commuters.


The transport mess is not simply a case of skewed priorities, said town
planner Chandrashekhar Prabhu. It's more a case of policy makers catering to
personal interests.


"Apart from the monetary kickbacks from the civil engineering projects, the
politicians and bureaucrats are only interested in how fast they can reach
the airport from Mantralaya or reach their hometowns using the expressways,'
' he alleged.


Further, Mr Prabhu argues that fly-overs should be built to connect the
western and eastern wings of a railway station. "The flyovers built on the
Western Express Highway are of little use to people living on the western
side of the railway stations,'' Mr Prabhu added.


Besides, the flyovers are of no use to those shuttling between the eastern
and western corridors.


Experts say that in their haste to push through the flyovers, the erstwhile
Shiv Sena-BJP government doesn't seem to have consulted any experts or
conducted techno-economic and cost-benefit studies.


Motorists using the newly inaugurated 2.4-km Crawford Market-J.J. Hospital
flyover already are complaining that the joyride lasts for barely three
minutes-and then they get held up at the CST and J J Hospital junctions.


Although most of the recent flyovers have been constructed according to
international specifications, transport experts point out that the flyovers
should have been complemented with pedestrian subways to reduce the
possibility of accidents at pedestrian crossings.


It was only after a spate of accidents claimed several lives on the Eastern
Express highway that the government woke up to the need for subways.


But though the pedestrian subways at Chheda Nagar at Chembur and Ramabai
Nagar in Ghatkopar were thrown open recently, several others are pending.
Sirish Patel, the architect of the city's first flyover, at the Kemps Corner
in 1965, also has some harsh words for the government.


"It is a proven fact that flyovers have never been a solution to a city's
traffic problem. They simply shift bottlenecks from one point to another,''
he noted.


"In Europe they are not only discouraging construction of flyovers, but
actually reducing width of existing roads to encourage pedestrian movement
and bicycling.''