Social Sanchar with Smt. Ashwini Bhide, IAS on 27th August 2019

When
August 27,2019 @ 4.00pm - 5.30pm

The Mumbai Metro promises to be something that will change not only the landscape of the city, but hopefully, also the mindset of the citizens and get them to ditch their vehicles and adopt public transport, as a way of life.

Amidst various rumours and concerns surrounding Mumbai’s Metro, and considering, citizens have questions on how the Administration is going about it, V Citizen Action Network (VCAN) organised a much-needed Social Sanchar on Mumbai Metro – How it will change urban transport, at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, on 27th August, 2019.

The programme aimed to provide a direct citizens interaction, and clear all doubts and concerns, with Smt. Ashwini Bhide ​IAS, Managing Director, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (MMRCL), who is in charge of Metro Line 3 (SEEPZ-BKC-COLABA).

The Social Sanchar began with the welcome address by Mrs. Indrani Malkani, Chairman, VCAN on behalf of MMRCL and VCAN and she gave a brief introduction about VCAN and MMRCL. She explained that as mentioned in their website, MMRCL was the nodal agency responsible for the implementation of Mumbai Metro Line–3(MML-3) project. It has been constituted as a Joint Venture of the Govt. of India (GOI) and the Government of Maharashtra (GOM) on 50:50 sharing basis. MML-3 has been envisioned to be the modern transport of the 21st century. It aims to provide a Mass Rapid Transit System that would supplement the inadequate suburban railway system of Mumbai by bringing metro closer to the doorsteps of the people.

Mrs. Malkani expressed her gratitude towards VCAN’s Web Portal’s founding partner, Eureka Forbes; VCAN’s Social Sanchars venue partner, the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, as well as VCAN’s technology partner Teknowlegion and video technology partner April Broadcast; colleagues and networking partners and friends in the media, who enabled VCAN to take their work forward. She particularly mentioned how VCAN’s biggest strength lies with their college partner Jai Hind College and thanked the students for their ready help and support.

Mrs. Malkani then introduced Mr. V. Ranganathan, her fellow Trustee, who was the former Chief Secretary of the State of Maharashtra, and invited him to introduce the Guest Speaker Smt. Ashwini Bhide IAS, MD, MMRCL.

To view a brief profile of Smt. Ashwini Bhide, click here

Before requesting Smt. Bhide to give her opening remarks and make her presentation, Mrs. Malkani mentioned, that whilst MMRCL is responsible for the Mumbai Metro Line 3, all the other Metro Lines are in the purview of MMRDA. Questions related to other Metro Lines, which are with MMRDA, would also be taken up as overall Metro Network general issues, by our Guest Speaker if possible.

Following the introduction, Smt. Bhide delivered her opening remarks, starting off by thanking Mr. Ranganathan and Mrs. Malkani Chairman of VCAN and how happy she was to have the opportunity to be on the platform of VCAN’ Social Sanchar and interact with the citizens.

She then stated that continuous interaction and keeping citizens informed, was the motto of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation.

She continued that, MMRCL is extremely active on social media particularly Twitter and that they update citizens almost on a daily basis of the progress of the projects and interact with citizens and answer their queries.

Smt. Bhide then began her presentation with an overview of the project.

Some of the pertinent points in her presentation were;

Traffic scenario – suburban rail carries 8.0 million people daily, which is the highest in the world and then there is the bus as well, and even then, the public transport usage has decreased due to the huge increase of private cars, choking Mumbai. She did a comparison of traffic congestion of the other metropolitan cities across the world, and Mumbai has highest congestion and low average speed, which has direct effect on emission and pollution. Motorised transport increases pollution, railway system is the only way forward to decrease road congestion and pollution.

Salient features of the metro-

• Connecting the unconnected
• Safety and security features which are missing in the suburban rail will be in the metro
• Economic benefits
• Environmental benefits
• Scope of work of the project including the challenges and how the work is being executed Comparison of the work of Delhi metro and Mumbai metro
• Planning and conception of this metro line – A competent in-house management team as well as the utilisation of general consultants in the form of an international consortium of consultancy firms

Mobility – will further be facilitated through the 6 business districts with the promise of airport connectivity, connections to the existing suburban systems, and plans for a common mobility card that can be used across the Mumbai transport grid.

Safety features – which may have been overlooked in the suburban tracks, have been given great importance in the planning of this project. The inclusion of platform screen doors and a special emphasis on women’s security, aims to provide an even safer alternative to Mumbai’s existing transport system.

The economic opportunities – of this project are also extremely optimistic. The construction of the metro line has already created 15,000 jobs, and the operational phase hopes to see the creation of 2,000-3,000 more jobs.

Issue of tree transplantation– Smt. Bhide detailed all aspects related to the issue of tree transplantation and the commitment of MMRCL to bring back trees after the stations are completed

She emphasised that Metro Rail is a green project!

Challenges – speaking of challenges, she stated several challenges facing the project have been overcome in the past few months. The MMRC has dealt with the difficult geology while tunneling, and with the land awarded to them being slum lands in many places, had to be demolished and residents rehabilitated.

Perception – the perception of this project with the public and the media has also been erroneous in many cases, and that has prompted the MMRC to focus a considerable amount of effort into dialogue with citizens to prevent miscommunication.

Environmental concerns – Smt. Bhide addressed the environmental concerns surrounding the project. Speaking on the issue of the environmental concerns of the metro line, being in the proximity of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, she first reassured the audience that the National Park is and will remain protected and that the metro line has been given land in Aarey colony, and the area given does not touch the National Park.

The decision to use the land of the dairy department in Aarey for the car depot, is a technical decision and has been taken after negating all other alternatives. Although Aarey colony is home to a significant amount of greenery, the land is needed by the project for the construction of the car depot, without which the project cannot proceed. The car depot has been allotted 30 hectares, of which 25 hectares is being used for the car depot and 5 hectare remains as green patch. There is absolutely no plan for any of this land for commercial use.

The MMRCL is trying its best to maintain the green spaces and will be cutting down only such numbers of trees as approved by the Tree Authority, during construction. Several trees are being transplanted and new trees are being planted to compensate for any loss.

Emphasising on the issue of Aarey Colony, Smt. Bhide said there is no illegal cutting down of trees taking place, and nor is there any tribal community in Aarey Colony. The real challenge is that, the train manufacturing is expected to begin this November and unless the car depot is completed, there will be no place to station the first train, which will then delay the entire project.

Overall, Mumbai metro line 3 is expected to be a green project, the lifetime carbon dioxide appropriation of the 2,700 trees can be mitigated by just 80 days of the metro functioning. Once such effects of the metro are taken into perspective, Smt. Bhide assured that the project will look a lot more environmentally friendly, as supported by the results of their environment impact assessment.

To view the full presentation** of Smt. Ashwini Bhide click here

The floor was then opened to the audience interaction, both in house and online.

At the outset Mrs. Malkani conveyed that a large number of questions have already been received, so all questions may not be possible to be addressed at the Social Sanchar. However, all questions will be on passed to Smt. Bhide for her to answer, which will then be posted on VCAN’s web portal.

Before asking for questions, Mrs. Malkani appreciated Smt. Bhide’s clear presentation and gently reminded the audience that for any change to be successful, it needs to be accompanied by a change in the peoples’ mindset as well.

Mrs. Malkani proceeded to raise some common concerns that residents had already raised regarding the project, including noise pollution due to construction, missing traffic diversion signs, and accessibility challenges for People with Disabilities (PwDs).

Smt. Bhide assured the audience that the maximum noise pollution takes place only during the beginning stages of the project where the metal first hits the rock, and that these stages of construction are largely over and that MMRC is doing its level best to comply with the stringent noise pollution restrictions. Wherever possible, noise barriers have also been put up.

Regarding missing traffic signs, Smt. Bhide clarified that traffic signages are in place in all places of concerns, such as blind turns and construction areas. Sometimes these signs get disturbed or their addition is slightly delayed after construction changes, however these problems can be mitigated through reporting about the same via suggestions given to the MMRC’s Facebook or Twitter accounts.

With respect to the issues of accessibility, challenges related to disabilities of people have been taken into consideration when planning this project. Once all agencies begin working in conjunction the station planning can also be designed to be accessible for physically disabled passengers.

To this final point, Mrs. Malkani agreed and said that coordination of all agencies is the key!

The citizen interaction began with questions raised, which were multifaceted. To each of the queries raised, Smt. Ashwini Bhide replied in great detail.

Please see the video and hear Smt. Bhide directly.

The Q&A session starts from the 40th minute onward.

To view the video of the event, click here

Mrs. Malkani concluded the programme by calling the other Trustees of VCAN present; Mr. Rajan Jayakar, Capt. Sohrab Kapadia and Capt. Ashok Malkani to join her and Mr. V. Ranganathan and then requesting Mr V. Ranganathan to present a memento on behalf of VCAN, to Smt. Ashwini Bhide.

In the absence of the President of the RBYC, Capt. Sohrab Kapadia, who is also a Trustee of the RBYC, then presented a memento on behalf of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club to Smt. Ashwini Bhide

Last but not the least, an official photograph was taken and all were invited for some light refreshments.

To view the photos of the event, click here

To view the video of the event, click here

To view the press coverage by the Times of India, click here

To view the press coverage by the Hindustan Times, click here

To view the press coverage by The Hindu, click here

To view the press coverage by the Asian Age, click here

To view the press coverage by Mymahanagar.com, click here

All our articles are periodically updated.