Not in the name of “Mumbai Spirit”

27 August 2022, Mumbai

Not in the name of “Mumbai Spirit”

- Dhananjay M. Deshmukh, Mumbai

Mumbai, the maximum city, as some call, is always in the news – positive or negative. The city has seen many developments, experienced never seen before natural calamity, endured inter faith conflicts.

A couple of weeks ago, the city was in news for a heart wrenching accident of a couple who was killed after a dumper rammed into their bike and later ran over them on Borivali Western Express Highway in the broad daylight! The police and Mumbai Traffic Police claim that, while the flyover has potholes, but there were none at the spot where the accident took place. However, photographs of the accident, which have gone viral on social media, show the couple lying unconscious near a pothole with uneven road around them.

Mega Contributions

Mumbai is the financial capital of India. It is also the largest economy in India. As of 2021, Mumbai's Nominal GDP is estimated to be US$275 billion (Maharashtra US$450 billion). It is said to be home to 45,000+ millionaires and 45 billionaires. India’s economic hub Mumbai tops the central government’s direct tax collection. Mumbai contributed 32% to the overall tax collections with Rs 3.2 lakh crore in FY20. For FY21, the income tax department had set the target for Mumbai at Rs 4.07 lakh crore with Rs 2.31 lakh crore as corporate taxes and Rs 1.62 lakh crore as personal income tax. The city alone is expected to bring about one-third of total taxes collected at around 31% of the nationwide target of collecting Rs 13.19 lakh crore.

Richest Civic Body

The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is India’s richest urban body. With a budget of Rs 45,949 crores for 2022-23, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the civic governing body of Mumbai megapolis, is the richest civic governing body in India. The Rs 45,949 crore budget for this year is 17.70 per cent more than the last fiscal year when the total outlay was Rs 39,038.83 crore, which was more than the budgets of eight state governments - Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim and Goa. It is also said to have fixed deposits worth over Rs. 80,000 crores.

Between 12-15 per cent of BMC’s Rs 45,949 crore annual budget for 2022-23 has been allocated for projects related to monsoon preparations – up from 7-8 per cent four or five years ago, according to BMC estimates. While Mumbai records an average of 2,200 mm rainfall in monsoon, the city had recorded around 3,000 mm of rain in 2021. BMC has allotted Rs 1.5 crore for each of the 24 administrative wards to fill potholes during monsoon.

Mega Road Network

Roads constructed with cement concrete have a life of about 25 years. As per estimates there are about 2,055 km long roads in Mumbai (across 24 administrative wards), of which 1,255 km are asphalt and 800 km are concrete road (out of which 600 km were concretised in the last 5 years). Incessant showers in the city contribute to poor road conditions during the rainy season, leaving commuters in the lurch. Some roads are under the jurisdiction of other authorities like MMRDA, MSRDC, PWD, Railways, Mumbai Port Trust, and some are in private layouts. As per experts, it is the responsibility of these authorities to maintain these roads. Thus, the game of responsibility is played as and when suited to each stakeholder.

Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde recently told the state assembly that the entire road network of Mumbai will be concretized within two years to prevent the formation of potholes, especially during the monsoon.

The “Pothole” Drama

Mumbaikars struggle with a variety of challenges while commuting by road in the city, thanks to the potholes that surface in the monsoon. Some of these challenges go beyond the commute, with a surge in cases of backache and neck pain, especially among those between 25 and 40 years of age. As per reports, the BMC is said to have received over 25,000 complaints of potholes between March and August 2022. A few days ago, the Bombay High Court said it would assign a bench for hearing a case for grievances about potholes on roads in Maharashtra.

2 decades too many!!

While on the one side, spending on improving physical infrastructure such as roads is increasing rapidly, but on the other side the quality and durability of the same isn't telling the same. The last most visible change in the city's infrastructure were 50+ flyovers and Worli sea link that were planned or built with state government's support during the 1995-99 regime of BJP and Shiv Sena.

Thereafter, some incremental changes may have occurred, but not too many. Most of the efforts seems to have gone in maintaining or improving the existing infrastructure. In the last two decades, the population of Mumbai is estimated to have grown from 1.6 crore to 2 crore, approx. 25% increase. 

The city's civic budget too is seeing a steady rise of 7-8% every year. However, given the magnitude of rise in population and spending, one doesn't see drastic improvement in physical or medical or educational infrastructure of the city. The growth was limited to some sectors.

“Where there is a road, there is a..."

All said, conditions of Mumbai roads don’t match the impressive stature of the city. Potholes, and metro work have caused many accidental deaths. A couple of years ago, a 63-year-old. Senior citizen fell from her son's bike and succumbed to the injuries. There are many such heart wrenching stories of loss of family members or permanent disability.

Sample this - during 10 years from 2006-7 till 2016-17, a whooping Rs. 2.19 lakh crore budgetary spends were approved by the BMC, however, of this stellar figure, only 18.33%, or Rs. 40,267 crores, was actually spent on infrastructure creation. Although, Rs. 40, 000 crore itself is a mammoth figure, and new creations utilising these amounts should have been more visible, offer better utility to the citizens of the city.

• As per a news report citing RTI query, in 2018-19, some 4898 potholes were repaired by the BMC by spending Rs. 7.98 crore, approximately, a whooping Rs.16292 per pothole!
• Between 2017-22, the BMC is reported to have spent Rs 12,000 crore on Mumbai's roads - a staggering 10 per cent of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) 's annual budget!
• BMC’s expenditure rose dramatically in the 2012-2017 election term, as compared to previous two election terms between 2002 and 2012. As per the data, ₹1,002 crore was spent between 2002 and 2007 by BMC on construction and repair-maintenance of roads in the city, which increased to ₹3,992 crore between 2007 and 2012.
• Between 2012 and 2017, BMC spent ₹8,305 crore – double the money spent in the previous five years.
• Further, between 2017 and January 2021, BMC had spent over ₹7,298 crore on the roads department.
• This indicates that the expenditure in the ongoing election term that ended in March 22, is expected to be more than that of the previous term of 2012-17.

This does not include the western and eastern express highways as they are maintained by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

Rain Drains the budget!!

Every year, even if the city receives 100-150 mm rainfall in a day, city's infrastructure is tested - flash floods or creation of potholes. While Mumbai records an average of 2,200 mm rainfall in monsoon, the city had recorded around 3,000 mm of rain in 2021.

Between 12-15 per cent of BMC’s Rs 45,949.21 crore annual budget for 2022-23 has been allocated for projects related to monsoon preparations – up from 7-8 per cent four or five years ago, according to BMC estimates. The civic body is likely to have used Rs 5,000-6000 crore for monsoon preparedness in 2022-23, in comparison to around Rs 2,000 crore spent in 2018-19. The size of the municipal budget in 2018 was Rs 27,258.07 crore.

In the last two decades, a lot of technological advancements have occurred. While the BMC may have made use of some of such technology (particularly after 2005 floods) by deploying new pumping stations and rake screens (are intended for extraction of large and medium waste solids from wastewater with subsequent unloading on a transporter or into a waste bin), however, it hasn't solved the city's woes during the monsoons. Water logging, potholes during monsoons is still an annual ritual! There was a talk of building Tokyo style underground drainage system.

Not in the name of “Mumbai Spirit”

Mumbai never sleeps. And, it is a fact. Mumbai is considered as one of the safest cities in India. Somehow, the people of Mumbai are taken for granted by lawmakers and governance systems. Mumbai is a city of karma. It is not city of dreams - it rewards doers rather than dreamers. So, work keeps flowing by default, and to maintain the rhythm people keep doing whatever they are best at, day and night, travelling east to west.

Having said that, many a times, whenever a riot or bomb blast or flood occurs, politicians or those in governments misinterpret this discipline or the need of the common Mumbaikar to work, as "spirit of Mumbai". This shield is mainly used to escape from the scrutinize of the world, through hired media by showing movements of loads of people, the political establishments intend to show to the world that city is not disturbed.

Mumbai does have a spirit. A spirit which enables the rich and the poor to work together, come together to celebrate or mourn together, despite having vast socio-cultural diversities. The threads of this spirit are multi-colored, multi-layered.  No one group or any political party can claim their ownership on this spirit.

Whose Pride, is it anyway? 

As and when elections occur in the city, it is eventually made a matter of prestige or pride or "asmita (अस्मिता)" by political parties. While every political party or outfit has a right to protect its flock or reputation, however, it is seldom to see such blatant use of state machinery to settle political scores or to create fear in the minds of general public who otherwise will like to express. The prestige of marathi manus or Mumbai isn't a copyright of any group or political party. It is a collective unison of public - poor or rich. It cannot be invoked to protect own wrongdoing or errors of select few.

Each citizen of Mumbai - be it "haves" or "have not's", be it marathi or non-marathi, be it educated or uneducated, works tirelessly for own survival. Through successful survival they come together to celebrate - successes and joys. No one can spoil that spirit. When a biker fells in a pothole, it is the citizen of Mumbai who get bruised or loses life.

It is the pride of Mumbai that gets a beating. So, dear Mumbaikar, get real - your pride is your identity. Don't mortgage Your identity to any establishment for a few favors! Don't let them claim ownership of your pride. Don't let anyone play with your pride. Don't let anyone to claim your property to score their own brownie points. Let us stop Mumbai from becoming a "Hadaso ka shahar (" हादसों का शहर) "!

Be real, be rare! Be wise in electing your public representatives!!

- Dhananjay M. Deshmukh, Mumbai

(Author is an independent market research and business consulting professional. Views are personal. Data presented is collected via online secondary research).