Mumbai Metro to the Fore

Mumbai's urban railway network is notoriously clogged with bodies. While around 13 people die every day from accidents, the city strives less-than-wholeheartedly to construct a thorough metro system. I wish India's largest urban agglomeration the best of luck in this enterprise, but I am fairly certain that the metro will not be completed for many years. I'll be supremely gladdened when the system finally does take off the ground. For the 6+ million people who grace the rails each waking day, any and every improvement is overdue.


Here are some links that deal with the Mumbai train system and the construction progress. This process surely takes some time!


Death Trains

mumbaimetro1

Mumbai Matters


Two conferences that I attended in Bombay, Urban Age Mumbai and the 5th International Conference of Critical Geography, presented very different approaches to urban development, but both undoubtedly would laud the speedy completion of the planned Mumbai metro. While neoliberal development advocates might be more at peace with the rapid influx of motor vehicles, the automobile's pathways cannot keep pace with the increase in car ownership. The public infrastructure of Mumbai just cannot meet the demands of the demographic increases that will not cease at any point in the near future.

There is no practical way of capping the density of Mumbai, but this should not discourage critical investments in infrastructure. It's just that the burden on any new infrastructure quickly wears away at the newness. There's no end in sight to the population explosion in 3rd World cities such as Mumbai. We can merely hope and beg for more expedient development of public transport so that the morass of motoring metal, bodies, and fumes does not spontaneously combust...