Mumbai: The transforming metropolis in India

Big things are afoot in India's financial and entertainment capital. It is the world's second-most densely populated big metropolis, with a metropolitan population of approximately 25 million people.

Dec 3, 2023 - 19:00

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Mumbai: The transforming metropolis in India

Big things are happening in India's financial and entertainment hub. It is the second-most densely populated major city in the world and has a contiguous metropolitan population of nearly 25 million people. However, there are hopes that a series of five transportation projects being built simultaneously around the city will ease the movement of people and goods and help the city become a global powerhouse by mid-century. This is Mumbai, the fast-changing megacity. Mumbai, which means "mother" in Marathi, is the capital of Maharashtra, the second most populous state in the world and the largest contributor to India's GDP. Several land reclamation initiatives had united several islands into one mainland by 1845. But it was a turning point in American history that probably contributed the most to Mumbai's current trajectory.

Without the American Civil War, Mumbai would not have been as important as it is today. Because of the Civil War, the source of raw cotton for the newly industrialised England dried up abruptly. At the same time, the Suez Canal was opened, halving the transportation route to London. This turned a 90-day journey into a 30-day journey. When you leave the Suez Canal and enter the Red Sea, the port of Mumbai is right in front of you. Since Maharashtra traditionally grows a lot of cotton, Mumbai was in the right place at the right time. The railroads were one of the things that the British gave us, especially to transport produce from the hinterland to the port. And the port expanded like crazy. Today, the Port of Mumbai handles most of the container traffic that comes in and out of India and creates a lot of jobs for the citizens of the city. Ramesh Shinde takes the train to the port. "I work at Mazagon Dock, a shipbuilding company that builds submarines," says Ramesh Shinde. We have already built five submarines and are currently working on the sixth. "For decades, the lure of a solid, permanent job has attracted people from all over India.

We have a big problem in India with people going to the cities. You can't stop people from going to Mumbai; they have the same right as any other Indian to do so. You can either figure out how to make things better yourself or you can elect people to do it. The problem is that the population of the city has grown much faster than the government has been able to create the infrastructure, and it has been doing so for so long that no matter who is elected, there is still a lot of catching up to do. The infrastructure was built to meet the needs of the city. However, in the 1970s, we experienced a series of financial setbacks. We were completely unprepared. You know, when you reach 10 million people and your infrastructure is only enough for two and you expand your infrastructure to accommodate 10 million people, it's already beyond 15 million, and it's not enough. Five major transportation projects are underway simultaneously to bridge the gap.

The first is the Mumbai Metro, one of the most ambitious and significant transportation projects in history. "Right now, our suburban rail is the lifeline of Mumbai." This suburban railroad carries around nine million people. Our new metro network will carry about 7 to 8 million passengers. We are almost doubling it." Using huge tunnel boring machines, eight lines are being built simultaneously through the bustling metropolis. They can't come fast enough. The existing S-Bahn is completely overcrowded and transports three times as many people as expected. This is not only incredibly exhausting, but also dangerous.

Every year, more than 2,000 people die on these tracks because there are always delays. "There is no express train, and it never arrives on time." If the Central Line train is late, we miss the connecting Western Line train." "It's difficult for non-Mumbaikars to get on the train." There can be extreme traffic jams. I am a local who can't even board the Virar train." The first two above-ground metro lines opened earlier this year to great acclaim. "We sit in air-conditioning and ride the metro for 30 rupees." So it's really convenient. Think how much money a cab or rickshaw would cost otherwise." The main artery will run for 33 kilometres under some of Mumbai's most historic buildings. "This will be the city's first underground subway," says the mayor. I live right in front of a subway station that will soon be underground. I think it will make travelling much more convenient.

And because it's underground, there will be relatively little damage to the city's architectural heritage or the built sections. The current network architecture has made changing trains much easier and more convenient. When you leave your station, there's a skywalk that connects you to a subway line, and from there, you can go straight home. I remember a conversation with RA Rajeev. He explained to me that the first metro project took about ten years, but that the remaining lines will be built faster, which is also happening in the rest of the city and the suburbs. The current proposal is to connect 14 lines into a 360-kilometre network. This will also help to reduce traffic congestion. The road is quite exhausting. Clutch, brake, clutch, brake, clutch, brake. There is a lot of traffic. It's quite difficult to drive a car.

Parking is even more difficult than driving. There are no parking spaces, which is also a problem. Due to the structure of the city, the most popular areas are at the southern end, including Bollywood, India's thriving film and media industry. Bandra, a lush, affluent neighbourhood, is home to many of the stars. A little further south is the city's historic core, home to government offices, the main business district and college, luxury hotels, and famous landmarks such as the Gateway of India, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railroad station, and an ensemble of Victorian and Art Deco buildings that face each other in Oval Maidan Park. However, this place is so crowded that the journey to the airport can take well over an hour. This is where Project No. 2 comes in. When it opens next year, Coastal Road will be a 29.2-kilometre highway that will cut travel time to 20–25 minutes. For me, as a civil engineer, this is a dream project. It has everything a civil engineer could wish for, such as land reclamation, embankments, bridges, and tunnels. We have also set some world records in this area.

We have excavated 456 metres in a month, which has never been done before. The coastal road project was a dream in India and is now being built, which shows that India is making great progress. The project will also see the construction of a 10.5-kilometre continuous coastal promenade with numerous green areas, making it easier to reach Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the largest tropical urban forest in the world. However, the road will also serve as a gigantic concrete barrier, cutting off much of the seashore and replacing it with noisy automobile traffic. A cautionary example of such a strategy is the US cities of Seattle and Boston, which recently spent billions to improve access to their precious waterways by tearing down viaducts and diverting traffic into freshly dug tunnels instead. Other concerns include encouraging car ownership, which could worsen air pollution and traffic, ignoring the needs of carless residents who make up the majority of the city's population, and seemingly disregarding perhaps the city's biggest threat.

More roads are needed to connect roads that extend 1 km into the sea. You are expanding your existing infrastructure. This increases costs and also has an environmental impact. In return, you get your water back at a time when the city is at risk of flooding. We need to carefully consider whether a road by the sea will really benefit the city in 50 years. Will there be additional waterlogging situations during the rains? None of this has been considered. Elevated highways, like the coastal road, are referred to as flyovers by Mumbai residents.

The third important project is the Sewri-Worli Connector. It will cut through the island and allow vehicles to travel from coast to coast without interruption. This cab driver is constantly busy with the construction. He has a good sense of how this new piece of infrastructure will be used when he talks to his customers. "Once the bridge is built, the locals who need to travel to the suburbs will do so from below." The rest of the passengers will take the Flypast." So originally, there were quite a few flyovers in Mumbai, but they were all north-south. So the east-west connection was poor. Kurush lives in Navi Mumbai, a satellite city that would benefit from the fourth project.

The Trans Harbour Link is a 21.8-kilometre-long bridge that will allow vehicles to easily cross the inlet of the Arabian Sea that separates the island metropolis from the Indian mainland. When it opens this year, it will be the longest sea bridge in the country. It is more than just a transportation corridor; it is and will be an economic growth engine.

With this bridge, the mainland is really only 12–15 minutes away from Mumbai, and the city will be enriched by a large piece of land. The fifth project makes a lot of sense now that the bridge is in place. Navi Mumbai International Airport will provide what many other major world cities already have: an airport for international flights and another for domestic flights. With a population nearly twice the size of the national capital, Mumbai's transportation system needs to work well.

Although these five major projects have taken decades to complete, now that the steel is in place and the concrete has been poured, an even more ambitious vision is emerging. The city has changed; it is on its way to becoming a megapolis. We are thinking of something that stretches north to the Gujarat border, east to Mubar, and south to Mangaon on the Mumbai-Goa route. This is how we imagined Mumbai, and this is ultimately the Mumbai metropolitan region. However, Gorai, a part of the city that has remained relatively untouched by urban sprawl, is an example of the ever-changing trade-offs that need to be made for further development. Gorai can only be reached by ferry from the south, as it lies directly above Manori Creek.

In the evening, the place is completely uninhabited. It's not as if you are in Mumbai. This is a beautiful place. Hillary has experienced first-hand how quickly things change. People are obsessed with money, and everyone wants to live a fast life. Everyone had sold their property. There never used to be a single wall here. You've built your own wall since you bought the land. Hillary claims that he is happy with a daily wage of USD 8, even though he has to drive 15 kilometres to the nearest gas pump and wait in line every time he needs to fill up.

The authorities are planning to build a bridge to connect Gorai and its beaches to the rest of the city. They claim this will provide more facilities for residents like him, such as gas pumps. They'll give you options. If you need a gas station here, we need to build the bridge. We lose something to gain something. But if they built the bridge, all the beauty of this place would be lost. Oh, the mangroves and everything else—everything will disappear here.

The land won't be able to be saved. Although his salary could increase, he doesn't want the bridge. He fears it will disrupt his and his wife's relatively quiet lives amid the water-absorbing mangrove ecology that protects them from the rising sea and storm surges. Most of the remaining mangroves in Mumbai have been completely destroyed. No one else is harming nature; we are the ones doing it. And we blame Mother Nature. What can Mother Nature do? Nature is coming to a standstill. Take care of the environment, and everything will be fine. You have to pay a penalty if you play with nature.

Nature will work with you if you cooperate with her.

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