[sustran] Re: Chennai battles for sustainable transport - www.peopleandplanet.net

Jonathan E. D. Richmond richmond at alum.mit.edu
Wed Feb 22 10:53:42 JST 2006


There is a truly wonderful article Bish Sanyal write many years back on
the "Make-Believe World of the Calcutta Metro-Rail" which explains the
allure of something that seems both high-tech and clean in India.

The monorial represents modernity.

PLUS, it will surely be quite expensive to ride, so that it can be the
airconditioned preserve of the middle-classes, with the poor left on the
street...

I made a mistake when I interviewed senior management from the Calcutta
Metro Rail. I suggested that the service was for the upper classes.

Oh no...

Those at the top did not ride the trains: they had chauffeurs.

The rail system was for the solid Indian middle class, to make them feel
comfortable, to keep out the dirt and squalor of Calcutta, to make them
feel like they had made it.

And I am sure the image of the monorail has a similar role to play in
Chennai! --Jonathan


-----
Jonathan Richmond
Visiting Scholar
Department of Urban Planning and Design
Graduate School of Design
Harvard University
312 George Gund Hall
48 Quincy St.
Cambridge MA 02138-3000

Mailing address:
182 Palfrey St.
Watertown MA 02472-1835

(617) 395-4360

e-mail: richmond at alum.mit.edu
http://the-tech.mit.edu/~richmond/



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