WAS KURLA TRAGEDY INEVITABLE?

BEST BUS CRASH | Accident route in Kurla plagued by congestion, encroachment; authorities have failed to act for years, say activists

- Kamal Mishra

The BEST bus accident in Kurla, which claimed seven lives, has sparked a fierce debate about urban planning, congestion and governmental neglect. While preliminary investigations attribute the accident to the driver's fault, transport expert Jitendra Gupta, founder-member of the Citizen Transport Committee (CTC), has raised pressing concerns about the infrastructural and systemic failures that contributed to the tragedy.

Decades-old development plans stalled

Gupta highlighted that the proposed development plan (DP) to widen S G Barve Marg and create a direct connection between the Kurla station and the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) through Yadav Mandi has remained unimplemented for over 40 years.