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Mumbai: Attempting world-class status?

Menka Shivdasani

IN THE race towards globalisation, there is one crucial factor we seem to have forgotten: If you are reaching out to the world, then you need world-class cities as well. According to a United Nations report this week, Mumbai is likely to become the secon d largest mega city in the world by 2010. Kolkata, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai also figure among the 30 largest cities in the world.

This greatness, however, has more to do with the number of people living in these cities, rather than with any facilities such as better rail and road systems or telephones. According to the report, Mumbai's population will be 23.6 million, next only to Tokyo.

We are always, of course, talking about how quickly we are catching up with the 21st Century. The Communication Minister, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, was on CNN's Q&A on Tuesday night telling presenter, Ms Zain Verjee, that by 2002 every village would have a te lephone facility, and that India had 6 lakh villages. Ms Verjee did not seem convinced; she suggested this might be a tall order.

Meanwhile, in the commercial capital, there has been a frenzied attempt to build up the infrastructure. In theory, this is a wonderful thing. However, the trouble is the way it has been done. With nine agencies, including MTNL and Mahanagar Gas, constant ly digging up the roads, we have had, as Mumbai's municipal commissioner, Mr K. C. Srivastava, pointed out on CNBC India, ``a phenomenal 1,500 km'' being dug up.

Mr Srivastava conceded there had been a lack of coordination between these agencies, and that the same roads were being dug up over and over again. This admission did nothing to change the fact that driving in Mumbai has been a nightmare this summer: Ent ire roads have been gouged out without warning. With the monsoon already in full force, citizens are getting increasingly concerned about flooding. There have been hurried efforts to rebuild these roads.

Mr Srivastava said that 90 per cent of the work had already been completed. What he did not say was how it has been done. Under the best of circumstances, the roads have a nasty tendency to develop huge potholes in the rains. With the hasty resurfacing d one in the last couple of weeks, how soon will the roads begin to fall apart again? And what about the debris left lying around in most places?

The CNBC India discussion was on `Will Mumbai ever be a world-class city?' and featured two municipal commissioners, Mr Srivastava, and Mr S. S. Tinaikar, who held the same position ten years ago. It also included an NGO representative, Dinesh Ahir, who unfortunately barely managed to get a word in.

Both the municipal commissioners blamed the large-scale migration into Mumbai as one of the chief causes of the city's problems. Mumbai, said Mr Tinaikar, was facing a battle that no other city in India or the world had to face, adding that the city was really a ``cross-section of the country''.

The large number of people coming into the commercial capital posed a variety of problems that provided the perfect excuse for mismanagement. Unauthorised structures and slum colonies on the mouths of drains, said Mr Srivastava, were often a cause of flo oding in the monsoon.

However, slum colonies, are surely not to blame for all of Mumbai's ills. The fact is, as the show's host, Mr Govindraj Ethiraj pointed out, a large part of the revenues generated go towards paying the municipal corporation's 1.4 lakh employees, rather t han on development work. This was a point that Mr Ahir also made, adding that while the city generated 45 per cent of the Centre's revenues, very little of it came back.

Mr Tinaikar, who can afford to say these things now that he is no longer municipal commissioner, commented that every government and corporation would always say there was not enough money. The point, however, he added, is not whether there is enough cas h, but whether it is being put to maximum use. ``The State government, the Government of India and the municipal corporation have failed to deliver with the limited means they have,'' he said.

The importance of solving Mumbai's problems was underlined by the data flashed on the screen -- 90 per cent of India's banks and head offices are in Mumbai, 90 per cent of the country's capitalisation takes place in Mumbai, and one-third of India's tax r evenues come from this city.

However, if Mr Srivastava is to be believed, we are well on our way to solving the city's problems, whether it is poor roads, encroachments or cleaning the drains to avoid flooding. ``We are working on all these issues simultaneously,'' he said, and to b e fair, there have been various attempts at it, however half-baked. For instance, the authorities have tried to demolish slum colonies and unauthorised brick structures near railway tracks, but much of the debris is still uncleared, and the slum dwellers are simply living their lives out in the open a few feet away from the tracks.

It is no better with the problem of hawkers. In the market, word gets around very quickly that the BMC van is on its way and the vendors quickly pack up and hide in nearby buildings, to return a few minutes later.

The question that comes to mind is: Is this a losing battle? Can Mumbai be a world-class city?