WILL MUMBAI'S INFRA BOOM MAKE THE CITY MORE LIVEABLE?

MUMBAI, our financial capital, long neglected, is experiencing a renewed infrastructure boom.

- GURBIR SINGH

After frenetic construction activity, the city has just seen the inauguration of the coastal road. Built at a huge cost of Rs 13,000 crore, the part-underground, 11-kilometre channel connects the extreme south of the island city to midtown Worli, and then onwards to suburban Bandra via the sealink. This allows car traffic to bypass the worst snarls during peak hours.

The Dharavi slum project, awarded to the Adani Group, is finally seeing movement. If it goes through, the 640-acre slum sprawl will be the city's new Manhattan with high-rise commercial buildings, and residences for over 60,000 families.

The Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), now christened 'Atal Setu', India's longest 22km sea bridge, is commissioned, while dozens of glitzy flyovers are promising to make life easier in the megalopolis.

There is stout opposition too. Planners and environmental activists point to lopsided development favouring the top 10% car-using, creamy layer. For the average Mumbaikar, the living densities, the shrinking open spaces and the worsening public transport, has made things more difficult.

Development trigger

A recent brainstorming session led by newly appointed Municipal Commissioner, Bhushan Gagrani, along with retired IAS officer who helmed the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, R.C. Sinha, and architect-activist P K Das, generated important pointers.