Cities on Speed: Mumbai Disconnected (2009)

• 71%
• 2009
• Frederik Jacobi
• Camilla Nielsson

After funds run out from a World Bank loan, work comes a halt on a seaway connecting the suburbs to South Mumbai, and authorities plan to modify it to end near Breach Candy with a temporary 30 foot flyover on Peddar Road. Yasin Patel - who lives in Northern Mumbai, exercises to keep fit and wrestle his way in local trains; sells stuffed toys on the footpath; and has a wife and three children, who often accompany him on his two-wheeled motorbike, but despite of traffic jams, has now purchased Tata's Nano. Veena Singhal, President, Peddar Road Residents' Association feels more investment is needed in public transportation rather than temporary flyovers. She feels trapped in a cocoon-like existence - from flat to a chauffeur-driven car to club - all air-conditioned. R.K. Das, the Vice-President of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation is frustrated with bureaucratic delays, including missing nearly half of 69 trees due for re-location in a city of 20 million. With 1200 families migrating everyday it is poised to be the largest city by 2020; 13 people killed everyday while traveling in trains which hold 16 passengers to a square meter. In this chaotic background Minister Anil Deshmukh, with scores of party workers in toe, attempts to convince residents of the advantages of flyovers.