Mumbai needs an infra upgrade now
Strap: Its transport network has failed to keep pace with the city's geographical expansion and dispersion of its population
One hundred and seventy-two years after Great Indian Peninsula Railways ran Bombay's first suburban train between Bori Bunder and Thane, the city's rail network continues to be its lifeline. But Monday's accident at Mumbra in which four people lost their lives is a stark reminder of how hazardous their daily commute is for millions of Mumbaikars.
Trains that are meant to carry 2,500 passengers routinely carry twice that number making the crush load on Mumbai's suburban network among the densest in the world. The 1810 daily train services on the central railway on which the accident happened, carry four million passengers annually, excluding the hundreds of daily ticketless passengers. The city's eye-watering property prices and lop-sided redevelopment have pushed most of its middle class away from the island city to its peripheries. Suburbssuch as Badlapur, Titwala, Diva, Kalyan and Karjat are bursting at the seams because they offer affordable housing. However, they continue to be poorly connected. The BEST bus services do not extend to these neighbourhoods, nor are there any arterial highways that can facilitate smooth road travel. The metro rail projects have yet to reach these conurbations. The Devendra Fadnavis government has embarked on a massive infra upgrade in Mumbai but much of it is underway in the island city and the already-pampered western suburbs.
While short-term cures such as air-conditioned rail coaches with doors to prevent people from hanging out of compartments have been proffered, there's a larger and far more complex central question that needs addressing: how Mumbai will take care of its famous working class? The mill land redevelopment in Parel and the shiny upgrade of the Bandra-Kurla complex have dismantled old working-class neighbourhoods, pushing residents to the farthest edges of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, forcing them to commute longer distances. The BEST bus fleet, still the most affordable mode of travel, instead of expanding, has been whittled down from 4700 to 2800 buses in recent years. Meanwhile, old suburban railway stations on these routes have not been upgraded, with most containing just two platforms even though the number of commuters has gone up manifold, leading to everyday instances of dangerously surging crowds. The central railway has refused to categorise what happened on Monday as an accident, terming it an 'incident'. An accident necessarily entails an inquiry but the reasons for this week's death on Mumbai's tracks are all only well known. It's high time the government addressed them.
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India Today
a day ago
- India Today
Why safer Mumbai local trains would need much more than just doors
Mumbai loves its local trains. Amidst all the uncertainties of what it takes to survive in Maximum City, this is one thing that never deceives. Commuter trains run on time, and come hail or high waters—which is not uncommon—run for why, Mumbaikars never really want their local trains to change. Even if these take lives daily—that's just life in one of the world's busiest and most densely populated June 9, for instance, during morning rush hour (between 9:10 am and 9:30 am), two overcrowded local trains passed dangerously closely between Diva and Mumbra (Kopar area) on the Central Railway line. Some passengers, hanging on footboards or standing near open doors, were suddenly jolted by the proximity and motion of the the backpacks of two passengers got entangled. This caused at least eight people to fall onto the tracks, leaving four dead and the others injured. Most of the victims were in their 20s and 30s. One of them, Vicky (Vickey) Babasaheb Mukhidal, 34, a Government Railway Police (GRP) constable stationed at Thane, was returning home after track stretch, in Thane's Mumbra, is typically where trains closely cross each other, endangering the lives of commuters illegally hanging out. What this means is everybody who uses this service knows the dangers. And a few years ago, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) had been cracking down on a new social media trend of young travellers taking selfies while hanging out of moving suburban trains on Mumbai's Central and Western lines carry passengers up to thrice their capacity during peak hours. If a local train's capacity is around 1,500 people, it typically carries more than double the number in busy hours. The system cannot accommodate more trains within the peak-hour time brackets to ease the rush. There's simply no track available for also nearly impossible to physically restrict the number of people boarding a train. It has been tried unsuccessfully in the past. No one can be denied a ticket, and daily commuters usually have monthly railways have now decided to install doors with louvers in non-AC commuter trains to boost safety while ensuring the ride doesn't get stuffy. How long passengers will allow shut doors is another matter year, around 2,000 commuters die on the Mumbai suburban train network—an average of five daily. The railways calls them 'trespassing deaths'.About a decade ago, the railways had pitched the idea of another rail corridor along the local train route on the Western line—from Churchgate to Virar, covering 63 km, with sections elevated, underground and at ground level. It was supposed to be a joint venture with the Maharashtra estimated ridership was pegged at around 1.68 million per day— that's a huge load taken off the existing local trains that carry over 7 million people new rail corridor was to cost around Rs 21,000 crore. But as it often happens in India, the state and the Centre could not agree on who should pay how much and why to get the project off the ground. There were also concerns about how much land would be needed and where and how to value that. Long story short, the project got abandoned and so did Mumbai's chance to get an upgrade of its local train metro rail system, designed to give commuters a more dignified and faster mass transit experience, is seeing ridership numbers only around half of what was projected. The hope is that it will be more useful perhaps after the entire 523-km-long network is local train is also an emotive and politically sensitive issue. Any upward revision in fares or change in the timetable or any configuration of the services invites people's ire. In the first year of the Narendra Modi government, then railway minister Sadananda Gowda had to roll back a proposed hike in suburban train fares after facing immense political heat from this means that to make Mumbai's beloved local trains safer for its commuters, one would need to install much more than just to India Today Magazine
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Mumbai needs an infra upgrade now
Strap: Its transport network has failed to keep pace with the city's geographical expansion and dispersion of its population One hundred and seventy-two years after Great Indian Peninsula Railways ran Bombay's first suburban train between Bori Bunder and Thane, the city's rail network continues to be its lifeline. But Monday's accident at Mumbra in which four people lost their lives is a stark reminder of how hazardous their daily commute is for millions of Mumbaikars. Trains that are meant to carry 2,500 passengers routinely carry twice that number making the crush load on Mumbai's suburban network among the densest in the world. The 1810 daily train services on the central railway on which the accident happened, carry four million passengers annually, excluding the hundreds of daily ticketless passengers. The city's eye-watering property prices and lop-sided redevelopment have pushed most of its middle class away from the island city to its peripheries. Suburbssuch as Badlapur, Titwala, Diva, Kalyan and Karjat are bursting at the seams because they offer affordable housing. However, they continue to be poorly connected. The BEST bus services do not extend to these neighbourhoods, nor are there any arterial highways that can facilitate smooth road travel. The metro rail projects have yet to reach these conurbations. The Devendra Fadnavis government has embarked on a massive infra upgrade in Mumbai but much of it is underway in the island city and the already-pampered western suburbs. While short-term cures such as air-conditioned rail coaches with doors to prevent people from hanging out of compartments have been proffered, there's a larger and far more complex central question that needs addressing: how Mumbai will take care of its famous working class? The mill land redevelopment in Parel and the shiny upgrade of the Bandra-Kurla complex have dismantled old working-class neighbourhoods, pushing residents to the farthest edges of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, forcing them to commute longer distances. The BEST bus fleet, still the most affordable mode of travel, instead of expanding, has been whittled down from 4700 to 2800 buses in recent years. Meanwhile, old suburban railway stations on these routes have not been upgraded, with most containing just two platforms even though the number of commuters has gone up manifold, leading to everyday instances of dangerously surging crowds. The central railway has refused to categorise what happened on Monday as an accident, terming it an 'incident'. An accident necessarily entails an inquiry but the reasons for this week's death on Mumbai's tracks are all only well known. It's high time the government addressed them.
India Gazette
6 days ago
- India Gazette
Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis announces completion of Samruddhi highway; calls it historic, emotional moment
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