A new flyover was opened in Mumbai on August 1. The inauguration was done by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. In an unusual quip for an inauguration ceremony, he urged the municipal corporation to smoothen the surface of the flyover that is named after the person on whom Shiv Sena is founded: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Presumably the CM was ignored. That ignorance proved to be a humiliation as less than a month later the flyover was blocked for repairs after the death of a commuter.
Who is responsible?
The flyover after the repair is a poor joke. In a strange attempt at resurrection, speed breakers have been installed on a rough flyover that was designed to fasten traffic in the congested capital of India.
Who is to blame? On one side the claim is that the contractor, JMC Projects, did a shoddy job. On the other is the claim that the decision to open it in monsoons was flawed as mastic asphalt needs a dry environment and heat for it to get smoothened.
If it’s the former – it’s incompetence. If it’s the latter – it’s stupidity on a different orbit. Either way, the loser is the average Mumbai resident.
The reason for highlighting this example is to reflect on a phenomenon that many Mumbai residents choose to deny—the fall and fall of Mumbai.
I have been a resident of Mumbai for the last three decades although I was born in Kolkata. Back then it was a no-contest on the premier city of India. Kolkata was a chaotic disaster.
Bangalore’s IT boom had not taken off. Delhi was a glorified village. Whenever I visited other cities there was a palpable sense that: Mumbai is the place to be in India. Most of the talented youth wanted to relocate to the beaming commercial capital of India.
Delhi vs Mumbai
Among all the cities the one city I visited frequently was Delhi. It wasn’t a city I enjoyed. The weather was too extreme.
Power outages were routine. Road infrastructure was shoddy. Safety in general and especially for women were key risks. People appeared to be unusually aggressive.
In fairness – given work schedules almost all my trips earlier were short so my views then could have been half-baked. This year on account of COVID-19 and WFH I could and spent the better part of July and August in Delhi.
No comparison really
This extent of time in another city allows one to soak the place instead of merely treating it like a tourist outing where only the best places and top options are explored. It was a humbling trip.
While the weather was far from ideal, several aspects had seen a marked upgrade. Road infrastructure and connectivity were far superior. Safety levels were much improved. Power cuts had been minimized.
The pulse among the lower-middle class, despite the pandemic, was of inherent confidence on account of improved delivery of services by the Delhi government.
There were weaknesses as well including the terrible/non-existent drainage system that floods a city with little more than an hour of rain. In totality – it will however be a churlish man to deny that the experience for an average Delhi resident is much better than it was a decade or two ago.
In contrast, it would be a naïve man to deny that the experience for an average Mumbai resident is much worse than it was a decade or two ago. Roads are an adventure. Traffic is chaotic.
Quality of housing is largely abysmal. Open spaces have been grabbed or encroached. Where did things go so wrong? The beginning of the end was arguably the infamous Olga Tellis vs BMC judgement by the Bombay High Court that set the stage for every open space or pavement to be encroached by slums or hawkers.
Its consequence is that today any infrastructure upgrade like road widening, drainage enhancement etc has a veto from slum-dwellers or hawkers who are anyway illegal occupants of the land.
The real story
That’s half the story. The other half is on account of the complete hollowing out of the state by government corruption. The richest municipal corporation of Asia has a vast budget but almost 2/3rd of that goes in establishment expenses and salaries for the staff.
The remaining one-third has fallen prey to a nexus that shows no pretence of propriety. Roads, drainages, footpaths – everything is up for plunder. In a strange paradox the most professional workforce of India has been successively crushed by an absolutely compromised government ecosystem.
The consequences are showing. Home prices are falling. Migration of top talent is slowly moving from Mumbai. Startups and new-gen industries are being founded in other cities.
Perhaps the most appropriate quip on Mumbai’s situation came from a Kolkata-born journalist who is now based in Delhi. At a coffee meeting last month, he remarked, “Mumbai now eerily reminds me of Kolkata in its crumbling days. You guys are the commercial capital of India for god’s sake – need to start looking like one once again.”
He’s right. It's time Mumbai’s administration recognises that reality as well. If not for Mumbai – the city’s ruling party should do it for the person on whom the party is founded and a dismal flyover is built.
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