Central Hall: Mumbai that accounts for largest share in India’s growth story, global trade deserves better infrastructure

Lack of dedicated leadership with a clear vision, and narrow political shortsightedness is killing Mumbai

X: @prashanthamine

Mumbai: For a metropolis like Mumbai which according to September 2024 report of Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the PM has the largest share of 6.16% out of the 13.3% share of Maharashtra in India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), accounts for 70% of India’s maritime trade, accounts for 40% of share in State GDP, accounts for 40% of India’s Foreign Trade and 25% of India’s industrial output, deserves a better civic and urban infrastructure.

A single day unseasonal heavy downpour on May 26 was enough to overwhelm the fragile civic infrastructure leading to water seepage into the under-construction entry point to Acharya Atre Chowk, Aqualine station (Mumbai Metro Line 3), exposing the monsoon preparedness of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Every monsoon season brings some respite from scorching summer heat, the annual spectacle of flooding that follows brings alive the nightmares of the July 26, 2005 deluge that had paralyzed Mumbai for almost two days.

It underscores the stark, bitter truth that the Metropolis, the country’s Financial Capital lacks a dedicated leadership that has a clear vision for the future of the city and an imperative to act. The narrow political shortsightedness of its leadership is what is killing Mumbai.

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) clarified that the water seepage was through the temporary access shaft that was undergoing finishing work. But what it does not highlight is the underlying political expediency in opening up of an under-construction segment of the Metro Line 3 that connects to the political heart of Mumbai that is South-Central Mumbai.

For a city that gave the country its first steam train on April 16, 1853 between Bori Bunder (Mumbai CST) to Thane almost 172 years ago, had to wait for 155 years since 1853 to have its first Metro line between Versova and Ghatkopar commissioned in 2008. Whereas, Kolkata had its first Metro in 1984 and New Delhi in 2002.

The political slugfest and courtroom drama over the construction of the Metro car-shed at Aarey Milk Colony in 2021 delayed the inauguration of Aqua Line by another four years. Even the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project got delayed due to a similar political slugfest. It speaks volumes of the political apathy towards the infrastructure woes of Mumbai.

That political expediency can be understood as the much delayed BMC elections are just round the corner. Come every civic election one gets to hear the oft repeated, by now clichéd contention/accusation that “the Centre is planning to break-away Mumbai from Maharashtra and this diabolical plan needs to be thwarted by once again voting us back to power.” The clichéd contention/accusation has ensured uninterrupted political power for some in the BMC for 26 years now.

But the collateral damage this political expediency has done is that civic infrastructure is fast crumbling. Lack of visionary political leadership and civic governance is leading towards Urban Apathy and eventual Urban Decay.

Poor quality of roads, potholed roads, overflowing sewerage lines, encroached narrow footpaths, vanishing open spaces and green cover, cramped and dilapidated housing is what you get when your sole aim is political power through political expediency. Mumbai desperately needs a futuristic political and an administration that is visionary and one that acts.

Mumbai needs to emulate what the nation-state of Singapore has done when it comes to managing heavy rainfall amidst scarce land resources and facilities to store that fresh water.

Why has Singapore been able to turn that resource of abundance into an asset and build a water-resilient nation? Khoo Teng Chye, Executive Director of Centre for Liveable Cities has put it very succulently in just a three page article in October 2018. He says that if any country wants to emulate what Singapore has done, then it must take note of three factors that enabled Singapore achieve its goals, and they are – Clear vision and dedicated leadership, An imperative to act and Flexibility and Innovation.

According to Chye rainfall was not the problem the challenge was how to store that fresh water given the lack of storage space and scarce resources like aquifers. For a nation that at the time of its independence in 1965 imported most of its drinking water needs from countries like Malaysia. Today since 1979 fully meets its drinking water needs through significant efforts.

Singapore being a low-lying country faced the threat of inland flooding. In order to solve the recurring droughts and floods, Singapore initially built reservoirs and drainage networks to meet the domestic water needs and mitigate floods. In 1972, Singapore came up with the Master Plan to construct catchment areas and reservoirs to collect rainwater and boost local water supply.

In the 1990s, Singapore’s National Water Agency PUB, was able to achieve break-through in water recycling and desalination technologies to close the water loop. Singapore has now converted its waterways into an environmental asset under its Active Beautiful Clean (ABC) Waters program in 2006.

The program aimed at creating community spaces around the reservoirs and canals thereby creating recreational facilities with green and blue spaces. Thus the Marina Barrage was constructed at a cost of $165 million in 2008. The Barrage created a catchment area of 10,000 hectares and meets 10% of Singapore’s water needs, alleviates flooding in low lying areas and at the same time was available to the public as a recreational facility, tourism, picnics, water sports and other activities.

Mumbai too faces the same geographical locational problem of being a low-lying coastal metropolis and flooding during the monsoon season. The more worrying signs for Mumbai has been that research conducted over the years by reputed organizations like UN Habitat, IIT Bombay, NEERI, TERI, IMD and Indian Academy of Sciences all reveal to an alarming rise in Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect in some parts of Mumbai.

All the research reports point towards islands of heat spots being created in some parts of the city like – South Mumbai, Central Mumbai and suburban areas of Andheri East. The main causes for the creation of these heat spots or heat traps has been the drastic change in land use pattern, increased concretization, concretization of roads, use of glass façades on commercial buildings, depleting green cover, landfill sites and industrial activities.

Since the 2005 Mumbai deluge, the UHI effect has been a contributing factor in increased precipitation during monsoon season. Add to that some areas of South and Central Mumbai are low-lying areas, areas that are below the sea level. According to a 2007 UN Habitat report, because the sewerage lines in low-lying areas are below the sea level, during heavy downpour coinciding with high tides they get clogged causing widespread flooding.

Soon after the 2005 Mumbai deluge the government drew up an ambitious plan for the rejuvenation of the Mithi River in August that year. The plan envisaged multiple projects like desilting, setting up of effluent treatment plants, improving water quality, diverting sewage, widening and deepening the river, and constructing protective walls, promenades, and flood control gates.

The Singapore government came up with the Active Beautiful Clean (ABC) Waters program to construct the Marina Barrage in 2006, and in 2008 within a span of two years threw it open to the public as a tourist and water sports facility. It’s nearing 20 years now since the Mithi River rejuvenation plan was drawn up, river water quality shows no signs of improvement, the pollution has not ended as yet and neither has the plan to construct promenades for the public which are yet to materialize.

Singapore has developed a smart network of Sensors covering the entire nation state to monitor its water grid, drainage grid and sewer grid. It uses Robots and Unmanned Vehicles to perform hazardous manual tasks like cleaning drainage and sewer lines. Sensors help detect any fluctuations in the water grid, weather, rainfall and pollutants in the water grid on a real time basis and take corrective measures.

PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency has 17 surface water reservoirs, 8,000 Kms of drains, rivers and canals, 6 waterworks, 3 Desalination plants, 5 NEWater plants, 4 Water Reclamation plants among others as part of its wide network that seeks to supply good water, reclaim used water and tame stormwater.

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In the aftermath of the July 2005 Mumbai deluge the response of Maharashtra government was to declare a two-day public holiday for all employees including those needed for relief and rescue operations. The central governments response then was even more appalling as it merely asked the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) to immediately upgrade its weather forecasting technology.

The only worthwhile fallout of the 2005 Mumbai deluge was that the city got about 60 advance Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) that were installed at Fire Stations across the city. This provides a dense network of hydro-meteorological information at 15 minute intervals.

The Government of Maharashtra was the first in India to have come up with a Disaster Management Plan (DMP) in the late 1990’s which was to accompany the State Disaster Management Plan (SDMP).

According to the UN Habitat report the initial plan primarily focused on creating and coordinating institutional networks rather than focusing on mitigating Mumbai’s disaster risk factors. Although the initial plan has been followed by subsequent plans, no action was taken to alleviate the pinpointed risks and chronic problems that the initial plan of late 1990’s had identified.

The UN Habitat report argues that the contributing factors to the July 2005 Mumbai deluge were – neglecting archaic zoning regulations, rent control policies and inflated land markets. These contributing factors alone have been inhibiting the government in controlling development in the metropolis. The report argues that several of the elected representatives and ministers in Mumbai have become real estate developers and owners of commercial lands.

The rampant concretization and drastic changes in land usage has led to UHI effect in most parts of Mumbai as it is causing increased precipitation and unseasonal rains. The concretization of roads was argued as a panacea for corruption in Asphalting of roads which were riddled with potholes. Concretization has meant that there is no open land where surface water run-offs can percolate down and recharge underground aquifers.

With nowhere to percolate, the surface water run-offs during monsoons is causing water logging. Former Congress MLC Architect Anant Gadgil had demanded that the government make it compulsory for keeping minimum open land space in housing societies for planting trees and allowing percolation of rain water. His pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

Another significant contributor to the water-logging/flooding is the illegal encroachments, illegal slums along the Mithi River, illegal encroachments along railway lines, water bodies and open spaces. This according to many urban planners and experts had got to do with the erstwhile Shiv Sena-BJP Shivshahi government of 1995-99, which had promised free housing to 40 lakh slumdwellers in Mumbai.

Over the years, this sparked-off waves of migration of rural poor not just from within Maharashtra, but from other parts of the country. This unchecked migration encouraged by populist schemes has put enormous strain on the already creaky civic infrastructure that collapses at the slightest gust of a wind or a few droplets of rain!

Since 1995 the regularization of illegal slums and encroachments has become a politically sensitive issue. Every other political party wanted the government to extend the cut-off date line by a few more years. The last date line was January 1, 2000.

With open land being at a premium in the city, illegal slums reached saturation point so much so that Mumbai was euphemistically called “Slumbai”. The effect of the free housing sop was that illegal slums came up along the Mithi River and along water bodies, choking them. Part of the blame for the July 2005 Mumbai deluge lies with these unchecked illegal encroachments.

Finally the government gave the entire free housing scheme a quite burial in 2002 with the government making a policy decision asking the slumdwellers to pay a part of the rehabilitation project cost. Even a Dharavi Slum Redevelopment Project is taking years to take-off as it too has been turned into a political football.

It is not that Mumbai and that the BMC did not have credible, formidable, well-educated and suave Mayor’s ever since the post was created 94 years ago in 1931. The likes of Sudhir Joshi (1973), Manohar Joshi (1976), Murli Deora (1977), Chhagan Bhujbal (1985 & 1990), Dr Shubha Raul (2007), Sunil Prabhu (2012) and Snehal Ambekar (2014) have held the post.

As Mayor of New York city, billionaire and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg used his philanthropies to fund and improve city infrastructure. He was the 108^th mayor of New York and held the post for three terms from 2002 to 2013.

Although we don’t have billionaires as Mayors of Mumbai, the city is home to some top billionaires who head global corporate conglomerates headquartered here. Mumbai’s share to the countrys Corporate Tax is significant and huge. We are yet to see Corporate Mumbai step forward in a big way to fund and improve civic infrastructure.

The British understood the importance of the geographical location of Mumbai, its natural deep water port, maritime trade and its time-zone difference with London and began developing the city in 1784. When will have far-sighted, visionary leadership that will not treat Mumbai as the hen that lays the golden egg, ignoring its infrastructure growth.