City: Mumbai

Maximum pothole complaints reported from Western suburbs Data from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), a day after a couple lost their lives to a pothole accident, at a carriageway flyover on the WEH opposite the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), showed that nearly 48% of total pothole-related complaints have been raised from Mumbai’s western suburbs in 2022. “The WEH is being maintained by MSRDC and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). The WEH along with the adjoining service road is infamous for potholes, however, it’s not BMC’s responsibility to maintain them. Whenever we receive any complaint we forward it to the responsible agencies,”…

Lallubhai Compound in Mumbai's Mankhurd is one of those areas where nobody wants to live unless they are compelled by their circumstances. All the residents here were rehabilitated about two decades ago by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) in buildings built with the sole purpose of providing a roof, everything else was left up to the people. Up until 2009, the area lacked access to clean drinking water, there were no schools and no street lights; late evenings were a big no for women. While some sent their children to schools at Sion Trombay Road, which is about 4 km…

When Bano Abdul Sattar (28) was a young girl living in Bandra east chawls, she could only do jobs that her family deemed appropriate for a woman. She picked up multiple jobs in her early teens; she helped her family run a roadside anda bhurji stall at night, worked as a tailor, and even as a mehendi artist. But this was far from what fascinated her. What captured her imagination when she was young were cars and the thought of driving one someday. And so, at the age of 16, she did just that. "Main na, chupke uncle log ko paise deti thi.…

For a majority of the population, moving homes is typically a voluntary decision made with great deliberation, taking into account the impact on education, employment and health. However, for the millions of slum residents in Mumbai, the same exercise is a result of routine eviction and demolitions. If these families are fortunate, they are moved to slum resettlements. Consider the case of one of the largest slum resettlement drives in Mumbai, documented through the eyes of women by Ramya Ramanath in her book, A Place To Call Home: Women as Agents of Change in Mumbai. An associate professor at DePaul University,…

Flash strikes have plagued Mumbai’s public buses at least five times in the past three years, since private buses were introduced in the Brihanmumbai Electric and Supply Transport (BEST) fleet in 2019. Two strikes by BEST workers happened in Mumbai Central bus and Magathane bus depots on April 2nd and 26th, 2021. This year, Kurla depot saw no buses turn out on April 22nd, 2022 and for three consecutive days on May 17th-21st, 2022. Similar strikes happened on July 17th-18th at Vikhroli, Wadala, Bandra and Kurla depots. After the strikes, the workers were cajoled and convinced or were paid (overdue) salaries to return to their jobs. …

The years 2013 and 2014 stand out in the State of Health report for Mumbai released by Praja Foundation. With a discrepancy of over thousands of deaths in those years in the age group of 0 to 4 for diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and tuberculosis, the data raises more questions than answers. Collected from all the 24 wards under Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) through RTIs up until 2015, the data shows strange figures for the cause of death among various age groups. For instance, the data shows that in 2013, 1,612 children in the age group of 0 to 4 died…

It is only after paying Rs 10 lakh as fees that one becomes an engineer from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. In contrast to this, I completed my B Tech in 2013 from a government college in Kerala for Rs 26,000. IITs have turned into a gated community of the elites, serving those who can afford their exorbitant fees and filtering out those who can't. The fee hike by IIT-B in July is a testament to that. Soon after the fee hike, the deputy director assured us that all our questions would be answered in an open house…

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease on the rise in Navi Mumbai Out of about 100 cases in the OPDs across Navi Mumbai, 50 are of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). A sudden rise in cases in the city has concerned officials since HFMD cases could be confused with monkeypox, chickenpox and measles.  “The blisters look similar to those seen during chickenpox. So, it is important to sensitise the parents, general practitioners as well as school authorities about the difference in these blisters that could be largely HFMD. We do not have any monkeypox cases yet. Measles is also not found. Chickenpox,…

This is the second and final part in the series on the history of building regulations in Mumbai. This part continues where the first left off, at the turn of the twentieth century amidst the administration's efforts at slum clearance. The Development Plan Preoccupation with affordable rents and slum clearance remained the mainstay of urban planning and governance in the 20th century. At the same time, efforts to address issues such as access to open spaces, amenities and concerns of over-crowding, traffic on roads were formalised and debated upon. The very first Development Plan was introduced in 1964 and sanctioned…

This article is part one of a series looking at how the history of building regulations and development has shaped the built environment of Mumbai. Part two will delve into the changes in building regulations over the twentieth century, through suburbanisation, the development plans and liberalisation. Ask Mumbaikars about the housing problem in the city, and you’re likely to get a different take on the issue from each one. Some will be up in arms about the pervasiveness of slums, which they call ‘encroachments’. Others will point to the absence of affordable housing, laying the blame on either the gaps…