The eternal East-West divide

When will we manage to move from one side of the city to the other without worrying about traffic or the weather?

I woke up this morning to news about the Andheri subway being closed on account of rain. There was an unusual amount of it, apparently, which is what we’re always told whenever some parts of the city disappear under water. It’s as if everyone at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation suffers from Transient Global Amnesia, a condition involving sudden episodes of memory loss that resolve on their own within 24 hours. They forget about the monsoons each year and are always shocked by rain clogging the streets. How can this be, they ask, before blaming the weather for their inability to prevent waterlogging.

And so, I went back to sleep a few minutes later, because this information has been a regular part of my life for as long as I can remember. I didn’t grow up in Andheri, but the suburb I was born in wasn’t too far, which meant I would hear about flooded streets each June. There weren’t as many vehicles around back then, and the Maruti Suzukis didn’t take up much room, but that didn’t matter because everything would stop working anyway. The areas were familiar to us all: Nana Chowk in Grant Road, Gandhi Market in Sion, Hindmata in Dadar, Kalanagar Junction in Bandra, DN Nagar in Andheri, and a bunch of other spots where time appears to have stood still while we create plans for Smart Cities.

It says something about the kind of people elected to manage this city when they can’t find any workable solution to an age-old problem for almost half a century. Take Andheri station, for instance. It opened in 1934, six years after being called Salsette–Trombay. I like to imagine that, at least for a little while, it must have been easier for earlier generations of residents here to cross over from East to West by road without having to write off the day’s other plans. It probably never happened though, because for decades before the Metro appeared, commuting from one side to the other at any point in this city has always been an experience fraught with anxiety. When it rains, two words are enough to effectively convey the horror of this journey: Milan subway.

A couple of years ago, the BMC reportedly had a budget of R150 crore set aside to manage over 350 places it had identified as chronic flooding areas. I have no idea what that staggering amount was used for, but I do know that nothing changed. Some of the engineers questioned at the time blamed waterlogging that year on the rate of precipitation, claiming it was higher than what could be pumped out. Others spoke of uneven distribution patterns related to rainfall. No one claimed responsibility because they knew they could get away with it. They knew we would all forget about rain when the sun came out. They also knew that claims of no waterlogging would appear the following year, made by ministers who wouldn’t step out of their homes while it poured.

When I was growing up, one of the terms that popped up routinely in newspapers was the Brihanmumbai Stormwater Disposal System, or BRIMSTOWAD. When it was first announced, the cost was pegged at R6 billion. By the time I stepped into adulthood, around two decades ago, the cost of the project had risen to R12 billion. I have no idea where things stand on this front anymore. Does anyone know if BRIMSTOWAD is still a thing? All I know is that our water drainage system is over a century old because that statement is made often enough, along with a reiteration of how it needs to be overhauled. When this will happen, or if it will happen at all, is anybody’s guess. I wouldn’t even bet a rupee on it being completed during my lifetime.

In July 2005, I found myself stuck at an office for over 48 hours as Bombay shut down and over 1,000 people lost their lives. The airports closed, rail links were severed, there were landslides on the Bombay-Pune Expressway, and phone lines went down. I vividly remember cars floating out of buildings and onto the street, and the kindness of strangers who did more than the government did. The only thing we got out of it, in the end, was a Bollywood movie a few years after the incident.

To those working on making India a superpower, I have a tiny request: Can we figure out getting from Andheri East to West first?

When he isn’t ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira 

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