Gridlocked Mumbai shrinks every day

NDTV Reports:

Mumbai is shrinking everyday as every inch of road is covered by vehicles, standing bumper to bumper. Even the fastest dream machines are literally brought to a standstill.

Mumbai’s traffic jams can be a great leveler. With over 22.5 lakh private vehicles in the city including two-wheelers. With eight thousand buses and 55,000 taxis, there seems little hope for those who want to get anywhere in these.

The future is not too bright either with 50,000 cars being added to the roads a year.

”We have already reached a gridlock situation in some areas for some hours at least. We might reach a 24-hour gridlock in a year.

The city grinds to a virtual halt every day at peak hours at these places.

The most affected areas are the Western Express highway at Kandivli, at the airport junction, the Bandra-Mahim junction, Powai near the Indian Institute of Technology, the Eastern Express highway at Kurla, Lal Bahadur Shastri marg between Sion and Mulund, Peddar Road in south Mumbai.

The problem is compounded by lack of parking space. Side lanes double up as parking lots, pedestrians and moving traffic have no space.

The government is focusing on expensive and lengthy projects like Metro Rail and Sea links, while simpler solutions like paid parking, lane discipline, car pooling are not priority.

I hail from this great city and it is very sad to see the traffic situation worsening now. I was manageable when i was there a few years ago but it seems to have gone from bad to worse now. I hope the government takes some immediate steps to solve this issue as its hampering the city’s and India’s growth. Watched a great report about this issue on NDTV 24×7 which is available here in the US on DirecTV.

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