Mumbai being one of the largest city faces various infrastructural hurdles to address natural calamities.
Proper Infrastructure measures needs to be taken to address such issues in near future.
What are the challenges faced by Mumbai?
Mumbai is an efficient city in some ways, but this reputation depends on fair weather, It turns into a soggy mess with the arrival of a monsoon.
Mumbai is yet to be prepared, after the passage of a dozen years, to meet a disaster such as the July 2005 flooding caused by 99.4 cm of rain in a 24-hour period.
Recently a spectacular collapse of a pedestrian bridge on a crucial railway line in Andheri, caused injuries and overall urban paralysis.
This incident has happened within a year, since the ghastly stampede on a foot overbridge at Elphinstone Road station, that took over 20 lives.
What are the reasons behind such issues?
The recurrent disasters involving infrastructure are proof of the indifference among policymakers to the city’s needs, even as they speak of a ‘global standard’ of living.
The city continues to attract a large number of people looking for opportunity the population rose from 11.9 million in 2001 to 18.4 million a decade later.
Half of the poor population in Mumbai did not consider moving out of flood-prone areas, because of the uncertainty of living in a new place with severe social disruptions and reduced access to education and health facilities.
At the same time urban managers have not invested enough in new infrastructure and have done a shoddy job of maintaining the old.
According to one estimate, the city’s Mithi river, blocked by debris and garbage, has lost about 60% of its catchment to development.
What measures needs to be taken?
Mumbai’s infrastructure planning should be in the hands of an empowered custodian who can secure the cooperation of all urban agencies.
A monitoring committee according to order of Supreme court need to be setup which would take resolute measures to stop the release of sewage and industrial chemicals into the Mithi, and retrieve lost mangroves.
A cleaner river connected to functional drainage can aid in the speedy removal of flood waters, and improve the environment.
Joint safety audit on public infrastructure must be regularly carried out and quick remedial steps need to be taken.
