This refers to the news report “Sky-bus cannot fulfil Mumbai’s commuter needs” ( Business Line , December 13). Fancy proposals for Mumbai’s water transport have surprisingly been coming up in several avatars in the last five years.

These involved not only subsidies by the state to the private sector partners but also heavy investment on creating jetties and approach roads by the state.

These may at best be used by tourists but if the project is to benefit a much larger section of commuters between Navi Mumbai and Mumbai the road-cum-rail bridge project would have ideally served their transport needs.

The pitiable situation is that while the state had a few years back dropped the rail portion of the road-cum-rail bridge arbitrarily without assigning any reasons, the road portion also is stuck up.

The road-cum rail project would have curtailed by two thirds the time taken by the commuters using the harbour line of the Central Railway. The reservations which the World Bank expert has mentioned in respect of the water transport would only add more to the public misgivings on the fancy water transport proposals.

Even if this fancy project gets through, it may not be functional in the three monsoon months in Mumbai.

It has also to be borne in mind that the hovercraft service between Vashi and Mumbai that operated in the last decade failed commercially. The state should therefore revive the rail potion of the road-cum rail bridge .

S. Subramanyan

Navi Mumbai

Wait and watch

It is clear that RBI would want the economic situation to further stabilise before embarking on a rate cut. RBI’s action, however, indicates inflation moderation is evident, providing scope for a future rate cut. After months of moderation in the growth rate, it is time for India to get back to high growth mode.

S. Umashankar

Nagpur

Published on December 23, 2012