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Travel made easy

Commuters have a host of transportation services to look forward to. The question is, how long will we have to wait for them? The government’s plans to turn Mumbai into a world class city may soon see commuters having to shell out a Congestion Tax each time they drive into south Mumbai’s business district. The move is expected to encourage travellers to leave their cars behind and use the city’s public transport.

This, authorities and environmentalists believe, will help in reducing pollution levels. However, the city’s transportation system is far from ready.

Schedules for local trains go haywire, rickety taxis continue to ply and the metro rail is at least a year away. The Bandra-Worli Sea Link is set to open next month but there is controversy over the width of the exit road. Simply Mumbai assesses these projects. The ambitious Bandra-Worli Sea Link
Touted to be one of India’s most ambitious waterways, the Bandra-Worli Sea Link will finally open next month, after a four-year delay. Conceived in the 1990s and contracted in 2000, the sea link is an outcome of a Rs 43,000 crore makeover dream.

While the link from Bandra to Worli will become a reality, the connecting bridge from Worli to Nariman Point is still on paper. Johny Joseph, Maharashtra’s chief secretary, says, “There were obstacles such as environmental clearances, assuring fishermen and proper planning.”

The distinctive eight-lane bridge—with two lanes dedicated to buses—is expected to cut travel time by almost 20 minutes. It will have state-of-the-art systems for traffic monitoring, surveillance, information and guidance, instrumentation and emergency support.

There are problems, though. In Worli, the exit road has been narrowed from 90 ft to 60 ft, which is likely to cause a bottleneck. However, the authorities are building another flyover to decongest the traffic that will pour out into Worli. Metro construction underway
The metro rail is Mumbai’s first effort to create an all-new transit system that will connect the central and western suburbs and ease commuting problems. Although work was to begin in September 2007, it began only in February 2008.

The project was plagued with problems that included long-winding litigation over a 31-acre plot that was supposed to be a parking shed for rakes. The project has been divided into three phases:

Line 1: Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar
The 11.4 km-long elevated rail corridor will be the first rail link between the western and eastern suburbs, with 12 stations.
Estimated travel time: 21 minutes.
Cost: Rs 2,356 crore.
Deadline: 2010.

Line 2: Charkhop-Bandra-Mankhurd
The 31.87 km-long elevated rail corridor will connect the western and eastern suburbs, with 27 stations.
Estimated travel time: 60 minutes.
Cost: Not yet finalised.
Deadline: 6 years.

Line 3: Colaba-Mahim-Bandra
The 19 km route will be the first underground line. It will be underground till Mahim, and elevated to Bandra, where it will join the Charkhop-Bandra-Mankhurd line.
Estimated travel time: 40 minutes.
Deadline: 5 years. A spanking new Western Railways train
In November 2007, Western Railways flagged off its first new train from Virar to Churchgate. With sparkling interiors, large windows, LCD displays and comfortable seats, the ride redefined train travel for the Mumbaikar. The city has, since, got 30 more trains, increasing daily capacity by five lakhs.

Introduced under the Rs 4,500 crore Mumbai Urban Transport Project, the first phase will see another 172 trains added to Mumbai’s rail network by 2012.

Over 60 lakh people travel on the Western and Central lines every day. In the past year, both lines have introduced 100 new services and increased capacity by converting from nine to 12-coach trains.

“We are adding new services this month, taking the number of services to 1372,” says AK Jain, PRO Central Railways. Each train costs Rs 20 crore.


The monorail has been conceived as a feeder to the Metro and suburban rail systems. Five links have been planned in places where the Metro will not ply—Wadala-Jacob Circle and Wadala-Chembur-Mahul Museum to Ghatkopar, Lokhandwala, Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan and Kanjurmarg-Mulund.

The work is set to begin soon and the first phase in Wadala will be ready by mid-2010. The estimated cost is Rs 8000 crore. Radio cabs are set to benefit commuters
The fate of 7,000-odd Premier Padminis is in the dark till the Bombay High Court makes a decision on the phasing-out. A government resolution had set December 3 as the deadline to phase out taxis registered more than 25 years ago.

But taxi drivers challenged this directive, arguing that it was illegal and gave them very little time to buy new taxis.

“The cancellation order was passed all of a sudden, without consulting the taxi union and taxi drivers,” says A.L. Quadros, general secretary of the Mumbai Taximen’s Union.

The Bombay High Court, on December 16, directed the government to set up a committee to hear out the problems of taxi drivers and explore the possibility of granting them relief.

The taxi union wants an extension and compensation by way of waiving off taxes and duties on purchase of new vehicles. Around 600 taxis have been replaced and 400 more will go off the roads this month, said Quadros.


The Sewri-Nhava-Sheva Link will be one of the world’s biggest transoceanic bridges and will change the future of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The mammoth task involves building a 22 km, six-lane bridge by 2013 at a cost of Rs 6000 crore.

The project is being constructed by an Anil Ambani-led consortium, with Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) as the nodal agency.

Though clearances have been given by the central government, the Archeological Survey of India and Pollution Control Board, the MSRDC still has some reservations.

The construction will hamper movement to JNPT and the marshy land will make the job tough. Navigation of traffic dispersal to the mainland and Mumbai will be a challenge.

Tidal water needs to be channelised for the survival of mangroves, and a disaster management plan has to be put in place. The bridge is critical for easing traffic on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, and the Mumbai-Chennai and Mumbai-Goa highways.



