The Hindu Business Line : A megalopolis on oxygen

There are many who believe that the self-styled megalopolis carrying the tag of Mumbai, if it continues to load its infrastructure along the present lines, is on its death throes.

Crowding into Mumbai. — Paul Noronha

LAST week saw the Bombay High Court get proactive on haphazard realty development in the already heavily `built-up' south Mumbai island. Its first order on Monday restrained the Maharashtra Government from permitting reconstruction of pre-1940 buildings, unless declared unsafe by the authorities, that too with an FSI (floor space index) not exceeding 2.5.

If that was a setback to real estate developers who were systematically ensuring the influx of more office-goers into the already overpopulated south Mumbai island, the second order on Friday invoked the Coastal Regulation Zone and prohibited sea-front construction, that too of a State government building. The two back-to-back orders are expected to have a long-term impact on the way India's business capital is developing, without giving any thought to its back-up infrastructure. In the short term, however, it is up to some of the smart thinking business houses that are liquidating their expensive land holdings in south Mumbai and moving out to larger spaces in the suburbs.

The private initiative comes in sharp contrast to the State government's marked reluctance to shift out some of its offices out of the island and reduce the quantum of office-goers from the city side.

Sacrilegious as it may sound to some, there are many who believe that the self-styled megalopolis carrying the tag of Mumbai, if it continues to load its infrastructure along the present lines, is on its death throes.

As the doomsday theorists find purists jostling for space with new kids on the block, the mystic religion called `living in Mumbai' has its rite de passage played out in the form of the daily penance of travelling by the suburban train.

Some of those worried by the `Dying City Syndrome' include the Shiv Sena supremo, Mr Bal Thackeray, according to whom the infrastructure of the city is overloaded beyond acceptable limits. While he is somewhat selective about who should leave in order to take the city off artificial respiration, there are others who write entire books on the mixed bag called Bombay.

In Maximum City: Bombay Lost And Found, author Suketu Mehta rejects the notion that the city is on its last legs. His rationale: When 500 new people come in everyday to live, Bombay is certainly not a dying city. Those who live in Mumbai may have reason to disagree with the US-based Mr Mehta. According to them, it is precisely the spectre of over 500 additional people landing the city each day, with no corresponding growth in infrastructure that gives nightmares to those who have a long-term stake in the city.

Arguably, a high percentage of fresh faces find their way to the ubiquitous chawls, thus ensuring that the commercial and financial side of India's business capital remains a marginal issue in the larger scheme of things.

But there is no denying that it is the business managers, software professionals, stock market punters, traders and, of late, the call-centre professionals who keep the city wheels moving.

And barring the last category, one finds that almost all the others are headed towards business side of Mumbai in the morning, only to return to their suburban residences late in the evening. It is a unidirectional flow of traffic — southwards in the morning and towards north in the evening.

The fanciful cures suggested have included a differential tariff on the city 's infrastructure that ensures a more even load on weekdays. As in the varying tariff levels that are charged in the energy sector in some countries to ease the pressure on peak load factor.

On the practical side, there have been plans to build sea-linking bridges and ply hovercrafts from mainland to the island, all these coming to nought as if by design.

True, crowded business capitals — London, New York and Paris — have their share of problems that , render road movement a painful experience. But, as a redeeming feature, they also have a decent public utility not bursting at its seams.

Even cities such as Delhi have put in place their version of a mass rapid transport system. But Mumbai seems content with its suburban train service to facilitate the throughput of human traffic. By keeping fares abnormally subsidised on this mode of travel, the powers-that-be have ensured the status quo on prime property in south Mumbai.

Successive governments have turned a blind eye to the demands that an example be set by shifting out some of the more populous establishments out of this part of the city.

Perhaps a beginning can be made by moving out, say, the Mantralaya, the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Bombay High Court. The rest would follow.

Clearly, there is still hope as business houses have begun seeing virtue in liquidating their landholdings in the pricey part of Mumbai in favour of larger spaces in the suburbs. If this trend finds acceptance among more corporate entities, then one may actually get to see multi-directional flow of traffic.

For the wannabe Shanghai, with a population density in excess of 19,000 residents per sq km, this could be the preferred solution rather than more vertical structures virtually tilting the island city into premature extinction.

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