Mumbai is the city of dreams. Nowhere in the country will anyone find such a plethora of opportunities nestled in such small a place. It is the city which the nation looks up to for its growth, prosperity and its generosity. It will not be unfair to say that Mumbai is because of its people. People from all walks of life, all parts of the nation and all ages are what make Mumbai this special. People, who are willing to work that extra bit to make sure that their families remain well fed and their children can be educated so that they don't have to eke out a living as miserably. People, who commute absurd distances to reach their place of work, in the hope that some day their plight will be understood by the powers that be and they might get redemption in the form of a few extra local trains at the peak hours.
These are the people who will be the most thrilled at the prospect of Mumbai getting a metro. While the current layout of the metro is not exactly suited for the people of suburbs commuting downtown, it is nevertheless a beginning for a better travel facilities for the city that gives so much to the nation and asks for so less in return. A plan (proposed) for the metro is as shown below:
Image Source : (http://urbanrail.net/as/mumb/mumbai.htm)The right to information act for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project yields the following:
http://www.mrvc.gov.in/tenderphp/admin/upright/summary.pdf
As things stand, the project is going to benefit the people who currently use the roadways connecting the east-west corridor (horrible state of affairs) and the already cosseted western corridor of the city. I fail to understand why the majority of the city's construction fund is diverted to the west. A significant amount of the working population of the city resides in the central suburbs. The western suburbs already have the western railways, the western express highway and the new and upcoming Bandra - Worli Sea Link. This is grossly unfair for the denizens of the central corridor. Not that I hear them complaining. But they have always been the proletariat as opposed to the upper class bourgeois of the western suburbs.
As I foresee, the Mumbai Metro is going to have the following effects:
1. The Western Suburbs will prosper
The western suburbs already are in the cream of things. The locus in quo the western denizens reside is already served by buses, railways and private vehicles to the point of overflowing. Yet, they are the recipients of the latest improvement in the urban transportation. Yes, they deserve better transportation to an extent, because they are the so-called business class of the city as opposed to the worker class of the central line. However, such an unfair distribution of benefits smacks of something more than simple preference for the western side.
2. Mumbai will be more crowded
This is slightly debatable. However, it is not so hard to believe if you follow the following line of thought:
Everyday, there is an influx of people into Mumbai. And everyday, some people leave Mumbai for the better (implausible I know, but just assume it to be so) Given the state of Mumbai's infrastructure right now, there are many people who are definitely considering leaving Mumbai as part of their retirement plans. A calculation will show that the limiting population, with respect to water and power requirements per capita, will be achieved within twenty years at the current rate of influx. Consider this in the light of improved transportation in the city and this will lead to a greater influx of people, thereby resulting in the limiting population being reached in somewhere between 8 to 10 years, after the completion of the MUTP. These are rough, back of the envelope calculations. However, I believe they should be sufficient to convince rational people that Mumbai is going to get further crowded!
3. More tourists
Better transportation with world class facilities can mean only one thing : more tourists. Which also means more and more stories of cons, rapes and the other malarkey that usually follows tourists around. There is also the matter of increased foreign exchange and increased rock concerts! :-)
All in all, the metro is a welcome thing. It will serve the needs of the people wanting to go from say Mulund to Borivali (a journey which takes two hours at peak hours, minimum) in a jiffy. However, to what extent it will change the fate of Mumbai's ever growing populace will only be told by time.
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