Mumbai Infrastructure

The city of Mumbai never sleeps and never rests, just creaks under the Atlassian burden. The financial capital holds a special place in the heart of its residence however the city's public infrastructure has consistently lagged behind expectations. Urban planning has been left as an afterthought in the race for urbanization which is marred with inadequate regulatory changes that have failed to keep up with societal and economic compulsions of the city. The city charades itself as a global economic hub that is riddled with congestion, overcrowding, environmental degradation, and a blind administration that has adopted the chalta-hai attitude as its modus operandi.

The metropolis that once dreamed of becoming a global financial hub and outshining Shanghai offers choked roads, 41% of its populus living in slums, and people taking jam-packed trains to their office that resides in a shiny tower in the heart of filth and dirt locality. The significant slum population pose a multitude of challenges like housing, sanitation, and basic amenities for the urban poor. The city also faces inadequate solid waste collection and disposal facilities, overflowing landfills, rampant water bodies pollution and effluent runoff leading to health hazards.

The absence of robust accountability mechanism exacerbates the woes and leaves Mumbai's nightmarish infrastructure stranded. It feels like Mumbai is always 25 years behind its civic infrastructure requirements and 10 years behind its contemporary peers.

The critical issue of a lack of development in the affordable housing segment has led to the proliferation of slums and informal settlements. The existing housing infrastructure is unable to merge the gulf between the posh townies and the suburban poor. The tall rises and even higher rents have resulted in Mumbai being in the top 10 of the most unaffordable cities (in terms of rent-to-income ratio). The existing infrastructure varies from high-rise apartments which only cater to less than 4% of the population to slums that are inhabited by almost half of the city. Dharavi is crowned as the largest slum in the APAC region. The lack of clear guidelines, standardised norms, and effective monitoring has resulted in substandard housing conditions, overcrowding, and compromised living standards for many residents.

The lack of a comprehensive solution for public transportation that serves last-mile connectivity is a sad reality of the metropolitan. The city's public transportation system is overcrowded, resulting in increased reliance on private vehicles that exacerbates the traffic congestion. The short-sightedness in terms of planning public transportation infrastructure has been exposed by the increased urban population and influx of immigrants from different states. The inadequate regulations and planning for public transportation, including measures such as dedicated bus lanes, cycling lanes, and improved last-mile connectivity, have hindered the development of sustainable and efficient public transportation options in Mumbai. No financial city in the world loses 3-4 days of business due to rains and water clogging, every year. That amounts to a 1.5 % loss of productivity and financial loss. We can't even fathom the loss suffered by the citizens. I remember my drenched clothes, soaked shoes and a slight fever that lasted for a couple of days.

Mumbai can be built better, built on the terms of a modern metropolitan. Regulations like no-car hours, better last-mile connectivity, and radical lifestyle changes are the necessity of the hour. The mute public is suffering but people with means flock to the city for its wealth and work a few years and then leave for a heftier pay elsewhere because nobody wants to live in an overcrowded swamp. Mumbai needs to develop fast before it becomes just a city for people to exploit rather than a place to build, prosper and stay.