The Hindu Business Line : BMC poor at handling monsoon crisis, say Mumbai consumers

COGITO Consulting, an arm of the FCB-Ulka Group, conducted a study, on the `mood' of the Mumbai consumer and the level of dissatisfaction with the way the infrastructure support services responded to the call for help just after the monsoon deluge in July.

Almost 85 per cent of the consumers interviewed felt that it was `the most adverse situation' they had faced in Mumbai. Obviously, this seemed to top even the bombing incidents and riots that the city had faced earlier.

The consumers were then asked to respond, on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (very good), on the way various services responded on the day of the crisis and a few days later.

Amongst the various transport services, BEST bus services were rated best at 3.8 out of 10 on the fateful Tuesday; Central Railway and Harbour Line came in at a paltry 2.1 and 2.0; while Western Railway was at 3.6.

Interestingly, by the end of the month, i.e. five days later, BEST and Western Railway had moved up to 6.2 and 6.1 respectively while the other two were found wanting at 3.6 (Central Railway) and 3.7 (Harbour Line).

Among the others, police showed a significant move up from 2.5 to 4.2; while Brihan Mumbai Corporation (BMC) went up from 1.4 to just 2.2, clearly indicating that the citizens were unhappy with the way it was handling the after-effects of the crisis.

Telecom services too have come for sharp criticism. MTNL's ratings dropped to 3.04 to move up to 5.72 five days later.

In fact, Orange seemed to have been hit the most with ratings dropping to just 1.93, improving to 4.95 five days later; among others Tata Indicom (4.42 to 6.08) and Airtel (4.21 to 5.70) have fared much better.

Power companies too have received an adverse report, with Reliance Power dropping to 2.26, only to inch back to 3.93.

Tata Power on the other hand has fared significantly better, with ratings dropping to just 5.60, and to improve to 6.77 after five days.

Radio stations seemed to have fared better (6.45) in providing news updates compared to television channels (5.83).

The study was done amongst 200 consumers belonging to socio-economic Class A and B, staying in the most affected areas such as Kalina, Goregaon, Andheri, Matunga, Chembur, Sion and Ghatkopar.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page