Bandra on the Blink!

In keeping with the modern trend, Bandra, that lovely suburb of tree-lined avenues and tiled cottages in quiet country lanes had to make way for the juggernaut of progressive growth! As Bombay turned into Mumbai it expanded to the North, creeping over all land and water, reaching the Dahisar river bank and further. The present Metropolis may be modern and posh but its underbelly, covered with sores and eruptions needs immediate attention to halt the collapse of this great city. Despite the glamour of night life, for the thousands of its ordinary citizens living here, Bandra is representative of all the ills that plague Mumbai.

The present crop of problems has arisen from the fact that various authorities that tend to the needs of the city seem to be functioning independently of each other. This blinkered vision in the name of progress is impacting the life of ordinary citizens. The need for an integrated force that takes all aspects of growth into consideration before a new project is launched is lacking in the minds of the city planners. Roads, Transport, Construction, Power, law-enforcement and the service agencies need to collaborate not only with each other but also with MCGM to formulate a sleek and feasible plan conducive to easy living. A token of an agreement between various authorities may exist on paper but is it being treated comprehensively?

It is sad to think that the transformation of Bandra into a commercial and entertainment hub has itself sounded its death-knell! The night clubs, pubs, lounge-bars, restaurants and gymnasia that seem to have cropped up overnight here are drawing patrons from all over Mumbai and the strain of this extra load on Bandra roads is choking the breath out of its lungs! For anyone commuting from the island city to the Northern suburbs passing through Bandra will pose a major road block of delay, wasted time and fuel that invariably ends in ugly incidents of road rage. Bandra’s arteries are perennially clogged with traffic that clusters around the plush eating joints and spills over to the adjoining roads till the whole area becomes one stagnant pool of vehicles emitting deadly pollution and noise. .

Let us deal with just this one problem here. While analyzing this most critical problem, i.e. traffic snarls on most of Bandra’s arteries at any given time of the day, more questions pop up than answers. Vehicles parked on both sides of the roads that slow down the flow of traffic belong to citizens from outside Bandra, patrons of the increasing number of eating joints and lounge bars. How did the number of restaurants grow so unwieldy within such a short time, leading to total collapse of vehicular movement? Why was the lack of parking space and the narrow roads around the new eateries, the proximity to a school or Nursing Home not taken into account when the license/permit was granted?

From the meager presence of the Traffic police on the choked roads one can surmise that even the Traffic police have thrown up their hands in despair because any number of phone calls fail to elicit any response, the excuse being the shortage of personnel in the department!