Mumbai awaits a paradigm shift for better infrastructure, waste management

Mumbai: Metro projects, cross harbour links, coastal roads, waste segregation centres, parking spaces, affordable housing etc are coming up in Mumbai soon. This time, the wait for such infrastructure will not be as long as it used to be, believe the panelists at the discussion ‘Re-imagining Mumbai – cleaner and less congested’ which was held in IMC Chambers, Churchgate, on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_3965529” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BMC building. Wikipedia image.[/caption] “There will be a paradigm shift in Mumbai,” said Niranjan Hiranandani - managing director and founder of the Hiranandani Group of Companies. He was among the other panelists — Shishir Joshi - CEO, Mumbai First; Ajoy Mehta - Municipal Commissioner, MCGM; and Ajit Ranade – chief economist, Aditya Birla Group of companies — who were present at the FPJ-IMC Forum. R N Bhaskar, consulting editor of FPJ moderated the proceedings. FirstPost.com was the digital partner for the event. Hiranandani added that in seven years’ time Mumbai will have double the length of railway tracks. He is optimistic that Mehta’s dream project, coastal roads, will take a ring-road model. Transport and communication in the city is opening up, he added. Adding to this, Joshi said, “In the chaotic life that we are living, the image of this city is taking a beating.” There is a need to examine the policy for open spaces in the city. “We need to look at the quality of life,” Joshi added. He stressed that many projects are taking place but there is a huge trust deficit and a lack of governance. “17-18 agencies are running the city,” Joshi added. These agencies should come together and make a project successful. In order to deal with the parking space issue, Mehta affirmed that there will be triple the number of parking lots for vehicles. He also added that projects get halted due to delay in land acquisition. This is one reason that less than 30 percent of the development plan gets implemented, Mehta added. “This budget for the development plan is expected to increase every year,” assured Mehta. Ranade stated that Mumbai’s municipal budget is bigger than almost 13 states in the country. This shows the city’s requirement, he added. Ranade added that managing waste is something that the city will have to take care of. He along with his fellow panelist echoed that it is high time that Mumbai started to segregate its waste.