Lighting the road to the city of the future

Mumbai Infrastructure-Global Solution Summit 2018 Initiated and Supported by Member of Parliament, Shri Rahul Shewale,  Dr. Ranjeet Patil,  Minister of State for Urban Development, Government of Maharashtra, graced the event as the Chief Guest and Ramamurthy Mayavan, Editor In Chief, Construction Times gave the welcome address. Rahul Shewale Member of Parliament Mumbai is the financial

Lighting the road to the city of the future
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Mumbai Infrastructure-Global Solution Summit 2018

Initiated and Supported by Member of Parliament, Shri Rahul Shewale,  Dr. Ranjeet Patil,  Minister of State for Urban Development, Government of Maharashtra, graced the event as the Chief Guest and Ramamurthy Mayavan, Editor In Chief, Construction Times gave the welcome address.

Rahul Shewale
Member of Parliament

Mumbai is the financial capital of India, a global city. The infrastructure of Mumbai city caters to a 1.25 crore resident population and around 25 lakhs floating population. Mumbai being the financial hub of India with an ever increasing population places a heavy burden on its infrastructure. The monsoon in particular is a matter of concern as it poses even more challenges on existing infrastructure. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, Public Works Department, BEST, and Railways are doing their best to provide quality infrastructure to its citizens. It is due to their relentless efforts that projects of international standards are being undertaken by civic bodies and other government agencies. However, despite these efforts more needs to be done to address issues like water logging, water shortage and traffic jams in several parts of the city. I hope the global summit will help us arrive at international standard solutions for improving existing infrastructure through collaborative discussions, which I plan to share with Shri Uddhavji Thackerey ji and honourable ministers and dignitaries present.

 

Ranjeet Patil
Minister of State for
Urban Development

MP Mr Rahul Shewale came up with this innovative idea that important issues pertaining to infrastructure need to be discussed if they are to be taken forward. There should be brainstorming by all stakeholders. I appreciate both the idea and this summit, which has become a reality due to his vision and efforts. Professor Shri Shrihari has been kind enough to share his feelings and experience with us. I also commend the key role played by Construction Times and Honourable Shri Ramamurthy, who has taken pains to make the summit happen. A lot of people have great ideas but very few people are able to execute them. So I suppose we go to the lot many functions in politics, we give speeches, we express our ideas, but execution is different because it some effort and a little pain. It calls for teamwork. The Honourable Chief Minister was to come to this program but there was an emergency that he had to attend to. He requested me yesterday to attend this program and I have travelled 600 kilometres from home to be present here.

About 70% of India lives in rural areas whereas 30% lives in the cities. However, in Maharashtra, 47% of our population is in urban areas and only 53% is in rural areas. This shows the development trend in the state. However, if there is a trend towards development, there are also challenges. Every family who is living in a rural area thinks that their children should get good education, good health and other facilities and they start migrating. They come to urban area. The peri-urban areas start to develop. The area, which is a core one and the area which is an urban one, the urban one is a collar area. With rapid urbanisation and as a rapidly growing floating population in a city like Mumbai, the infrastructure development has to keep pace or we run the danger of overtaxing existing infrastructure. Gone are the days when Development Plans (DPs) were drafted but not executed for 20 years. In last four years, we have seen that we had instituted a time-bound process for execution. The Trans-Harbour Link, Navi Mumbai Airport Project and added 124 kilometres of metro lines to be added in the next 3 to 4 years will ease the traffic in Mumbai.

 

MN Shrihari

Advisor of Government of Karnataka for traffic, transport and infrastructure

We have all assembled here with able guidance of honourable Minister of State for Urban Development who is the right person to deal here, Dr. Ranjeet Patil and who will be taking forward for all findings and all deliberations outcome to the state government as well as to the central government also. We are all happy to be here who is nothing other than the person who initiated this kind of global summit, Mr Rahul Shewale and who is also the honourable MP and who is the guest of honour here Mr. D.K. Sen whole time Director of L&T and honourable consulate general of Qatar Saif Bin Ali Ahmediya and also honourable first secretary council of Public of Afghanistan Mr M Salehi, he and many more invitees here and all local MLAs are also present here, ex mayor madam is also present here, and many more high expertise in the subject field of experts to carry on the deliberation here now. So with this brief thing I would like to hand it over back him.

 

  1. L. Mopalwar

Vice Chairman and MD (IAS), MSRDC

Infrastructure building invites a flurry of RTIs pertaining to environmental impact of projects. We do not realise that we have been slashing forests for almost 200 years and not 70 years. We are slashing forests right from Darjeeling to Nilgiris crating coffee plantations and tea plantations and indigo plantations following independence. I do not know how many people are aware, in 1948 we started a company called grow more food and the focus of the campaign was deforest, cut forests, bring maximum land into cultivation.

This went on till 1962. In 1962, there was a huge campaign called land grab campaign and people who did not have land they went on grabbing fallow lands. This was post 1972 with the Stockholm Conference, which attended by Mrs. Indira Gandhi who gave a call to protect the environment and the entire environmental scene in India changed. So the deliberate political initiative to protect the environment is just 46 years old. Mrs. Gandhi went on to bring in the Forest Conservation Act in 1980. In 1986, the Environment Protection Act was enacted but it was only from 1991 with the famous notification 1991 that we began speaking about environment impact assessment and environment mitigation plan. So it has already been 27 years, but we are projecting things as if we are out to destroy forests. We were a 30-35 crore population in 1947. We are 130 plus crore today. We have multiplied four times. The deficit of infrastructure is so huge.

I will give one example. Maharashtra is 307 thousand square kilometres. The age of South Korea is almost the same as India. We became independent in 1947. The famous Korean Peninsula war was in 1953. The level of development was similar. The the level of poverty was similar. The population density is also similar. We are 300,000 square kilometre and have a 12 crore population. South Korea is 1 lakh square kilometer and its population is 5 crores. So the density is almost similar. But they have a natural adversary. Seventy percent of our land is flat and 70 of their land is hilly. When we start on the same note in 1950's, South Korea started its infrastructure revolution in 1968, 50 years before us. We constructed the first Indian expressway that is Mumbai Pune Expressway in 1998, 30 years after South Korea. In the entire 307,000 square kilometre of Maharashtra, we have just 95,000 square kilometres of expressway only. And at 100,000 square kiloemtres, South Korea, which is equal in size to Vidarbha has  5,500 km of expressways, and 2300 kilometres of bullet train despite the fact that South Korea, which does not produce one litre of crude oil but has one of the five biggest oil refineries in the world. The entire story of South Korean growth is infrastructure led.

If you find forest today in South Korea it is a multiple of what was in 1970. So please understand the whole story of sustainability, whether it is infrastructure or construction industry. We have 60% of our population dependent on agriculture. The second highest employment today is given by the construction industry. While environmental sustainability is the priority of the government judiciary, society and activists, please don't term inadequate whatever is being done in the name of environment protection. On the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway we are planting three times the mandated trees. It will take seven to 10 years. If you compare 1980 satellite images with 2014 satellite images, there is a net increment in forest growth. The forest department says we are overdoing the planting. We said it is better to overdo than be found wanting in matters of compliance.. Today in Mumbai, 90 lakh people are actually transported in the Western and Eastern Corridors, and if take into account bus transport, a total of 1 crore 30 lakh commuters travel to and fro every day in Mumbai. With 250 km being added through metro rail extension, we will have lot more connectivity to last us 100 years. as far as metro is concerned when we are fighting our first war of independence in 1858, the London Metro was constructed. In 1958 they built their underground metro and we were fighting our war over muskets and daggers. We are behind by 150 years. We cannot compare ourselves with China because the building systems are different. They do not have RTI and judicial challenges weighing them down.

The rhyme ‘ London bridge is falling down' mentions the London Bridge, which was built 150 years ago. Whether in New York or Washington all famous bridges were built in the 19th century. We have to accept that we are behind by over 100 years.

 

DK Sen

Whole Time Director and Senior Executive Vice President Infrastructure, Larsen and Toubro

Larsen and Toubro is into infrastructure, which means we build road, rail, airports, bridges, metros, hydel power plants and nuclear facilities. We also build power transmission distribution networks. We are into water and solar energy. We are into minerals
and metals. We are into renewable energy. We also have Infotech, L&T Finance, and
L&T Manufacturing.

Mumbai is a very famous city internationally. I was not born in Mumbai but I have adopted this city for last 15 years. Initially, I thought I would return to Kolkata but I grew so much in love with this city that I had to ultimately buy a house and settle down here. Anybody who comes to Mumbai stays for good. He does not return. From childhood, I have been hearing that in Mumbai, money floats in the air, it flies in the air. This means that a gifted entrepreneur can become a big man here. People have moved from rag to riches here. Mumbai had its glorified time from 1995 to 1999. At that point of time it got 55 flyovers, and the Mumbai Pune Expressway following which MSRDC, which entire sea link Worli Sea Link was conceived.

But that is past.

Mumbai is setting up higher benchmarks today. It is actually defeating or it is actually excelling its old map as it sets new benchmarks with over 200 thousand crores of infrastructure development going on, which includes seven packages of the Mumbai metro, four packages of the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link, four packages of the Mumbai Coastal Road, and more packages as part of the Mumbai Nagpur Expressway, Navi Mumbai Airport and the Shivaji Memorial. If you add all of them, it is a huge development leap that is probably the biggest in the world. In the West, they are not investing any more. Whatever happens in the Middle East, Mumbai can say with pride that it has the most number of infrastructure projects happening in the world today. No wonder, Mumbai real estate prices are at the highest! They are even higher that Manhattan! I travel across various countries because my position in the company is as a whole time director, head of Infrastructure and we operate in India, in adjoining countries, in the Gulf and in CIS countries like Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, and in Bolivia. We are also present in Africa. I travel extensively and I have to tell you that Mumbai airport is one of the best pieces of architecture anybody can have. The Sahar Elevated Corridor connects the Western Expressway to the Mumbai Airport is a marvel of architecture. Incidentally, L&T has built it. I have discovered that all the states of Southern India together add up to Rupees 760 billion in GDP, which is 1/4th of India's GDP. But Mumbai's GDP is about 350 billion dollars. So in other words, half of the entire southern states or southern region of India's GDP is in Mumbai itself. This is a great number. Mumbai also has the second busiest airport in the world because every two minutes a flight lands or takes off from here. That is a huge number and when we started developing the airport it was handling about 22 million passengers per annum and it was built for 40 million passengers per annum. Today, it serves the needs of 50 million passengers per annum, and it is still growing. But there are bad things too that need to be highlighted. If you compare the infrastructure of Delhi with Mumbai, Delhi probably is cleaner and more spacious. We also have one of the largest slums in the whole world. A lot of people talk about redevelopment. Every day 700 vehicles are being added to the city, which has a vehicle density of about 1650 per kilometre, which is very high. This is the highest car density on road in any city. Also every 7th person owns a vehicle here. The Coastal road is going to add to the beauty of the city. And then obviously some pictures to show how much traffic we have on road and how parking space is hard to come by. Drainage and utility works are also in need of maintenance. We have potholes on the roads and poor maintenance.            There is much work to be done.

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