Creaking urban infrastructure
Recently the pedestrian bridge collapsed at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji
Maharaj Terminus, leaving six people dead and several injured. It was only in
September 2017 that there was a stampede at Mumbai’s Elphinstone bridge that
left at least 23 people dead. Beyond such acute disasters, there is the chronic
toll of eight people, on average, dying every day on the city’s railway tracks. This is the story of a metropolis that
generates so much wealth, but cannot guarantee the safety of its public
infrastructure.
The Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation
(BMC) have launched action on the contractor who carried out repairs on the
bridge five years ago. Far-reaching administrative reform is necessary to raise
public confidence in the way government works. In a city where eight million
passenger trips are made daily on an overburdened railway system, besides other
modes of transport, there is need
to raise levels of safety.
Mumbai’s experience should serve as a warning to all fast-expanding
Indian cities governed by municipal systems that have low capacity and
capability to create people-friendly infrastructure. Distortions in urban
policymaking in recent years are all too evident. There is need to make more accessible — roads, pavements,
pedestrian facilities and public transport.
The above-mentioned accidents happened only due to pedestrian attitude of
governments and bureaucrat towards development and up gradation. Inexorable
corruption may be one of the reason because it a very vital question how a
engineer/official issue certificate. It is not the first time this sort of
incident happened. Signal for up-gradation is urgently needed to avoid this
sort of incident in the near future.
One of the IIT professors stupidly said that the dearth of engineers is
the reason for it and on the other side, lakhs of engineers are applying for
sweeping, cleaning jobs in the government sector or driving OLAs and Ubers.
Nothing takes place without efforts and if India really wants to be the
biggest economy, concrete steps are essential in order to streamline
everything.
China is the best role model for India, they have the largest population
in the world and still have been able to eradicate and punish the corrupt and
developed the nation by pumping in gigantic funds in infrastructure.
No wonder why right from the birth itself we imagine settling abroad.
Will India ever have anything called "Good Governance"? Infrastructure
is something which is non existent in India. Politicians are busy making
tallest statues in the name of religion and other issues but those crores of
rupees are not spent on the public infrastructure that the citizens of the
nation use on a daily basis and nothing else but the pathetic state of
infrastructure causes casualties every minute.
The public is also not less responsible because they never hold anyone
accountable and they shrug off their shoulders saying, "Hame Kya" or
"India to aisa hi rahega". And, even when someone wants or tries to
complain, the immediate and the first response that the person receives is, you
are the only one who is complaining, no one complains hence the individual is
turned away with an abrupt refusal of listening to his complaint.
Why is it that accidents happen with unfailing regularity and still no
one is punished? In our country politicians who become members of civic bodies
like Municipal Corporations or Municipal Council know how to make money in
illegal way and still get away with it. Award of contracts by Municipal
Corporations has become a huge source for generation of unaccounted money and
no political party is an exception to this rule. Naturally what happens is that
those contractors who do a poor job pay money to politicians and in return they
enrich themselves and the officials of civic bodies too, all at cost of public.
This is the true state of affairs and this is reason for frequent mishaps and
accidents. Let us first accept this and then take steps to change the way civic
authorities award contracts. An efficient public transport system has to be
first priority in all our metros and other urban areas. But politicians with
interests are not committed to efficient public transport.
It’s unfortunate that the business capital of India does not have a
proper infrastructure such as strong bridges. The urban authority needs to be
more accountable to prevent tragedies. There should be regular quality control
& rigorous check ups by the concerned municipal authorities. Mumbai does
provide employment to many people from India and abroad. Hence scientific
maintainance of the infrastructure should be utmost concern otherwise people
might lose confidence with the local self goverment. There is need to put an
end to absolute callousness and carelessness of both the government and the
bureaucracy/ officers.
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