City of grinding halts

Pheroze I notice that you are wearing Wellingtons A rather unusual choice for this time of yearrdquo Lady Flora loved to pick on her friend in a lighthearted sort of way She knew it had to do with his extra careful self in the rains ldquoYou mean my gum bootsrdquo he smiled cheekily But she also saw that he was holding a sheet of paper ldquoWhatrsquos that in your hand Anything important to discussrdquoSir PM was eager to reveal the contents of the document with his friend ldquoFinally this is ready It was an effort really But I think this is noteworthy All our findings and observations about how the city managed this yearrsquos monsoon since June are here Would you like me to share a few highlights with yourdquo he asked his friend ldquoWell of course Pheroze This is our hard work we owe it to our city Please go onrdquo Lady Flora repliedSir PM took a sip of chai cleared his throat and beganldquoPoint 1 Infrastructure related challenges Due to multiple projects many in close vicinity with each other the common man struggled each time there was a heavy downpour Debris on either side of such projects added to road blockages besides severe flooding in new spots were observed plus damaged roads bore the brunt of these new worksPoint 2 Environment fallout This is a rising concern and needs expert advice else we will be staring at more collateral damage in our fragile city that bore the brunt of flooding once again Trees have been cut along these abovementioned projects without a care The city cannot afford to reduce its green cover at the costof upgrading infrastructure Do not forget the very large elephant in the room climate changePoint 3 Weather warnings The weather gurus did not get it right on several occasions by sharing timely updates in advance Again the common man was affected caught unawares and left without effective support to navigate the city on such wet daysPoint 4 Commuterfriendly city Very little effort or thought is given to make the lives of the average workingclass citizen who forms the majority in our city any easier during heavy rainfall days In times of breakdown of public transport there is no real contingency plan to help them There is no disaster management platform to aid people in quick time They are left to fend for themselves This often means young and old are forced to trudge through kneedeep levels of water for kilometres putting their lives at risk Important timely calls like adding extra buses since Central and Harbour line services were affected to ferry people home could have helped This frame has not changed for decades Remember July 2005 How can we call ourselves a lsquoworldclass cityrsquo if this repeatedly occursPoint 5 Better drainage It is critical that the civic gods use their funds to study the impact of increased infrastructure projects on our drainage system Use scientific data invite weather experts and urban planners to create logistically viable solutions Scenes of flooding of flyovers and railway tracks and besideunder Metro stations are getting all too commonrdquoLady Flora approved at what she had just heard but was also concerned about her dear city ldquoThis is perfect Now we should manage to present it to your former bosses rightrdquo Sir PM looked a bit worried ldquoI hope it will be smooth and this genuine appeal taken in the right spirit Fingers crossed they read our report After all itrsquos a Peoplersquos Reportrdquo he reasonedLast weekrsquos nightmare had scarred him clearly ldquoThe sight from my pedestal of a gent dearly holding on to the window grille and balancing his feet to the step of a BEST busrsquos back door broke my heart No Bombaywallah deserves this kind of shoddy treatment from his home cityrdquomiddayrsquos Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the cityrsquos sights sounds smells and stoneswherever the ink and the inclination takes her She tweets bombayanaSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom