A single regulatory body responsible for all modes of transport along the lines of existing systems in other major cities such as the Transport For London must be created for Mumbai. This was the key recommendation of an inclusive report titled ‘Transportation in Mumbai’ prepared by Mumbai Vikas Samiti and released on Wednesday.
Vidyadhar Phatak, Retd. Chief Planner, at Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) released the report and said that affordable transport opens up new land for affordable housing.
Ajit Shenoy of the Mumbai Vikas Samiti said that the report is a product of two years’ effort and it has given special attention to two aspects — the state of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport and plight of pedestrians. Cycle sharing and the adoption of electric vehicles were also recommended.
“The government doesn’t think of pedestrians as traffic. It only thinks of cars,” Mr. Shenoy said. The report has suggested measures to improve the mobility of pedestrians such as declaring narrow roads with large pedestrian traffic as pedestrian plazas.
The report also suggested that the Metro plan should be re-examined. “Of late it seems that Metro has been suggested as a solution for all problems,” Mr. Shenoy said.
Transport expert Ashok Datar said that Metro corridors will not necessarily reduce cars in the city. “If we look at Delhi, despite having a Metro network that is 300 km long, vehicles have increased over the last two decades. Mumbai has planned a 250 km Metro network.”