Waterways for Maximum City

Almost everyone who lives in Mumbai knows about the traffic hardships faced by the commuters on a daily basis. The city population has grown manifold and is continuously growing (and no I do not subscribe to the idea of restricting influx like some of our politicians have been asked for a I feel that is against one of the very fundamental freedom every Indian has to chose and work in whichever place they feel deem fit).

The situation is further made complex in Mumbai by the longitudinal shape of the city and therefore the polarized traffic movement at most times. Although there are some projects being undertaken like the metro and the monorail and some more on the anvil like the express corridor on the harbor rail link and the sea link across Uran, it somehow feels that this won’t be enough. Also we have to take into account the speed (or the lack of it) with which these projects will progress and considering same it is going to be a cat and mouse game between the infrastructure and the needs.

What a city like Mumbai needs to harness quickly is its water-ways and I am not talking about the bridges across the ocean which are there, and more which are being planned. I am of the opinion that we should harness the potential of using the sea and try to connect the various land points by high speed boats capable of carrying many in speedy comfort. We are reading in the newspapers of projects being planned on these lines but by the time they get the clearances, it may well be another decade !

Some years back there was an endeavour to connect Navi Mumbai with South Mumbai by catamaran but the service got shelved in a short while. Really speaking lot of places along the eastern and western fringes can be connected and apart from the occasional inclement weather, can run almost round the year. Many cities of the world have such concepts with water buses and water taxis and there is no reason why we should use the shoreline gifted by nature to do the same. It will definitely not say goodbye to crowded trains and traffic jams, but will help in de-congest.

And we should undertake projects like these quickly under PPP model with a BOO concept with a political will that has been sadly lacking for some time ! And time government started clearing infrastructural projects in a hurry !