1. Why Coast Road
it is a waste of public money
Public Meeting
St. Andrews Auditorium, Bandra,
Mumbai
1st November, 2012

2. What modes is Mumbai travelling by?
According to Comprehensive Transport Survey 2006
by MMRDA (There might be change of numbers)
1. ~ 70 lakhs by trains
2. ~ 35 lakhs by buses
3. 1.5 crore walking trips of which almost 50 lakhs
are only walking trips, without any other mode
4. Less than 10 lakhs are travelling by private car

3. • Most of the public money is being spent on
infrastructure to make private car travel easy.
• Should government have more concern for
public transport and walking modes?
Where is public money being spent?

4. A major ‘world class’ financial center like BKC
planned much later than Nariman Point and Fort
does not have a proper bus depot or taxi and
rickshaw stand – is that not a matter of concern?
Does MCGM and MMRDA suggest that everybody
should travel by private car?
Don’t have bread, let them eat cake?
Where is public money being spent?

5. How are the conditions for public
transport?

12. Make bus stops useful.
Use information technology to
provide information to people on
smart phones

13. Improve bus stops

15. What world class cities are doing?
• Seoul
(transforming to become the city with the best public
transport in the world. In 2005 they pulled down a 11 km
freeway they built over a river in the 60’s)
• New York
(complete transformation in past ten years for making NYC
walking, cycling friendly with improved public transport)
• London
( 70 lakh people travel by public bus service)

22. The CM will only show this, not the previous pictures.

23. Ecological aspects

29. Will coast road solve all congestion
problems of Mumbai ?
No

30. Does coast road follow well accepted
urban planning principles?

31. Does Coast Road report have any
evaluation of threats from sea level rise ?

32. Is coast road equitable and address
requirements of how millions of Mumbai
citizens travel?

33. Is coast road the best use of public money?
No

34. What is reducing the speed of traffic?
• Potholes, especially on junctions, which
causes traffic to pile up behind.
• On S V Road and LBS Road, 100 year old road
alignments cause a chickens neck at numerous
places
• Lack of any restraint on car ownership

35. About the report
• A search of the document for “climate change” “sea
level” and “wave action” yields no results.
• Is this true?
“While the long coastline of the city is its asset, the sea fronts
in the city are either abused by unsightly encroachers or
happen to be private backyards of the chosen few and not
available to public unlike beautiful waterfronts and
gardens/promenades adjoining the sea in major coastal cities
of the world.”
Page 2

36. Grounds for opposition
• The Coast Road report is full of
unsubstantiated claims on issues which are of
much concern.
• Report does not give estimates of number of
trips that the coast road will facilitate per day.
Report available here
http://mcgm.gov.in/irj/portalapps/com.mcgm.RTI_GMDA/docs/Costal%20road.pdf

37. Grounds for opposition
• Report has no mention of numerous traffic
improvement measures that are being applied
in every world class city around the world.
• State government and BMC record at
transport planning very bad.
• Planning comes first and then come projects.

38. We want to be ‘world class’
What's going on in the ‘most’
world class city?

39. 1
1
1

40. Reading the report this is what the Mayor did
When did we last hear a Mayor or a CM behave like this?

41. Where the money should be spent
• 2000 new air-conditioned buses for Mumbai,
depot space for buses and staff for operations.
• Improve commuter dispersal at all major
railway stations in the city by constructing
new FoBs and other access points
• Provide escalators and elevators for all railway
stations.
• Improve multi-modal integration in all public
transport hubs.

42. Will this be the case?
“…a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG,
gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT,
and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense
of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time
makes more converts than reason.”
- Thomas Paine, Common Sense

44. • https://www.facebook.com/NoCoastRoadMumbai
• http://www.change.org/en-
IN/petitions/government-of-maharashtra-
brihanmumbai-municipal-corporation-stop-
the-coast-road-project

45. Thank you