Manpada Flyover - A Solution????

Ghodbunder Road, a State Highway which connects the NH – 8(Ahmadabad) and NH – 3 (Agra), falls under the jurisdiction of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). A large part of the Ghodbunder Road passes through Thane Municipal Area or Thane city. And the development of thane in the last few years is the result of the widening, concretisation and development of Ghodbunder Road.

It is the primary arterial or the spine of development of thane in the last few years. There is large scale development going on both sides of the road and with increasing population there has been a phenomenal increase in passenger traffic on this road, adding to the freight/goods traffic. With a vision to promote the Smooth flow of traffic, MSRDC planned flyovers over the major junctions namely Kapurbawdi, Manpada, Patlipada and Waghbil. At the time of writing this blog the Waghbil and Patlipada flyover were completed and functioning smoothly. Residents of Ghodbunder road specially those living beyond Manpada  were eagerly waiting for the completion of Manpada flyover as it would provide the solution to the 10 minutes of congestion delay everyone travelling on this stretch during peak hours was facing.

The Manpada flyover was opened on 18^th March to the shortlived joy of all, as it only reduced the delay from 10 minutes to 7 minutes and shifting the congestion from below the flyover to above the flyover. Manpada Flyover has not become the solution everyone was dreaming of just due to inefficient planning, coordination between two government agencies and bad planning and traffic management practices.

What went Wrong?????

The Map above shows the schematic layout flyover with the Manpada Junction. Generally, a flyover is proposed after carrying out the traffic study of the junction and the road, which includes surveys of the existing traffic movement. It is also important to study the proposed road network in the vicinity for good planning.

1.)Travel Pattern/ Habits: Before the flyover was proposed Junction A or Tikuji Ni Wadi Junction on Ghodbunder road was a primary junction and all turning movements happened there as it was a signalized junction. MSRDC decided to eliminate all signalized junction on the road and thus announced a flyover over Tikuji ni wadi junction at Manpada. When the flyover was being constructed the Tikuji ni wadi  or junction A was closed to turning traffic. Im place of Junction A, Junction B i. e Khewra circle Road junction was signalized and all turning movements were allowed from Junction B. Over a period of 3 years during which the flyover was constructed Khewra circle junction became a primary junction instead of Tikuji ni wadi junction. Traffic patterns and movements in the area changed and travel habits formed.

Now when the flyover is complete, Junction A ( Tikuji ni wadi) has been opened for turning movements but people still use Junction B (Khewra circle Road) for turning movements due to established traffic pattern or Habit. Result is that there are long queues above the flyover as one lane of the 2 lane flyover is obstructed by vehicles waiting to turn at the signalized junction.

The Junction B must be closed and signals removed for effective traffic management, otherwise the flyover is a waste of public money as it does not reduce delays due to signal queues that extend above the flyover. Those who want to turn can do so at the the tikuji -ni -wadi junction below the Manpada flyover.

2.)Long Term Planning: The developments taking place on the Khewra circle Road are huge. There are large complexes like the dosti Imperia, Acme Ozone coming up and many more will come up later. They will generate a large amount of traffic and later on in the future this road will become the prime cross road rather than tikuji ni wadi road. It would have made more sense to have the flyover constructed over both these junctions. Any sensible traffic impact assessment will point out that the Khewrs Circel road junction on Ghodbunder Road will need a flyover.

Now there is no solution except to close the junction and let vehicles use the Tikuji ni wadi Junction. After some years that junction will be congested

3.) Inter governmental Department Coordination: The Thane Municipal Corporation and the MSRDC could have coordinated during the planning stage of the flyover to iron out possible issues like the one mentioned in point no 2 above. This did not happen and the result is a half baked solution to the problem. Even now, when the flyover is complete the TMC in conjunction with the Traffic Police should ensure that the signalized junction be closed which has not happened.

These issues would not have arisen, if the authorities had taken opinion and advice of independent professionals for the Project. For Proper Planning TMC and Traffic Police should consider the opinions and advise of Traffic and Transport Planning Experts. I am sure many of them would be willing to help with opinions, for the betterment of their own city

Online Shopping for Vegetables & Fruits

With a busy lifestyle and twin toddlers at home, me and my wife often do not find time to go shopping for vegetables and fruits. Generally we go to our upscale locality  bhajiwala once a week to buy and stock up on our daily raw vegetables & fruits at a marked up price (which I thought was marked up).
I saw some online websites which were selling fruits and vegetables and delivering at our locality. I decided to check out each of these websites and order from them. The three websites catering to my locality were
1.) www.fruitsandvegetables.in
2.) www.aaloo.in
3.) www.sabjiwala.co.in

The advantages of online buying, as i thought was lower prices, fresh deliverables, maybe delivered directly from farm. I went through all the three websites and found that the first listed website vendor was based in our locality itself and they delivered only on weekends. On weekdays it is only pickup from a nearest pickup point mentioned in the website. The nearest pickup point for my house was apartment complex 50 metres away. Their website was cluttered and it did not inspire a confidence. I tried to check out the pick up point on my way home but could not find anything there. I though i would call up and ask someone from the website but there was no contact number listed on the website. I wrote a mail in their feedback form but have not recieved any reply till date. The website was static as i checked through it over an entire week and looked like no one was operating it.I dropped the idea of buying from this website as it looked like amateur work money wasting proposition.

The next website i visited was www.aaloo.in. The website looked well organised and good. I ordered from the website. Everything was smooth and you get to choose the delivery time and date also. The order came neatly packed at home with some complementary items thrown in. My wife was pretty impressed. However the prices were not very different than my bhajiwala, some items lower some items higher but in totality the bill amount was same.

The next day i decided to check out the third website which was operated by a large farming enterprise. The shopping experience was good and smooth. No options however to choose the delivery schedule. The package was delivered at my home but 2 or 3 items were not delivered as they were out of stock.Able to order out of stock items also from the website and the good part is that they did not care to inform while conforming that some of the items ordered were out of stock. Such great customer service and great inventory mismanagement.As for the cost part it again was same as my bhajiwala

Of all three www.aaloo.in seemed the best. However i think the market is there for more such vendors who can provide better value at the same price.

The Rise of Slums (er Squatter)

Land economics, faulty policies and builder driven unusual political understanding is pushing slums to new heights. What used to be a single to double storey squatter settlement has now become/or is in the process of becoming a multi storey slum (6 to 8 storeys). What is good is that the erstwhile squatters, having got ownership of a tenement are no longer squatters but they still live in a slum, or to put it other way the settlement they are given may as well get transformed to a slum later.

Confused with squatters and slums? A lot of people do get so. As per oxford dictionary “squatter” means “a building occupied by people living in it without the legal right to do so”. It may be a building, land or property and it is not necessary that the structure be temporary or permanent and not necessarily a dilapidated one. Similarly “Slum” has been defined as a squalid and overcrowded urban street or district inhabited by very poor people/a house or building unfit for human habitation. It may not necessarily mean an illegal occupation. It relates to the economic conditions of survival and degraded sanitation levels for the people. Different countries have different criterion for identification of slums. Slums may or may not necessarily be a squatter settlement, but generally all squatter settlement happen to be slums because those inhabiting them are poor, have no access to basic civic or sanitation services and are densely populated.

India’s fame or rather its infamy is its large swathe of slums and a large percentage of urban poor. It is recognized for the fact that these slums have a large flourishing economy some of them contributing about a billion dollars to the national economy. The high cost of living, the larger household sizes and suppression from authorities and other powers to be, makes them inventive of new sources of revenue and untapped opportunities. After all necessity is the mother of all inventions.

Now if the slums have such a thriving economy, why have they not been able to improve their conditions to rise above? Is it the security of tenure preventing them or the lack of political will and initiative or is it the slum dwellers greed having squatted on prime land and who do not want to relinquish the location (the land is not theirs after all).

The “Green” Revolution

In the recent past months there has been a lot of noise regarding the Copenhagen summit on climate change, Kyoto protocol commitments, Green House Gas emissions, sustainability etcetera on a global scale. Closer home the bad monsoons have resulted in droughts and shortage of drinking water supply, erratic climate patterns. All these have resulted in a call for adoption of “Green” approach towards everything, every process, life cycle and toward every human need - be it built forms, water, fuel resources, food or any materialistic & non materialistic pursuit. “Green” has become the keyword for development now.

Why green? What is that “Green” signifies’ that today this keyword “green” has come to be associated with every process, every structure, and every community that we imagine for the future? “Green” is just a color, a median among a rainbow of colors and yet there are countless voices which can be heard from across continents of  the world which talk about a “Green” future. What then signifies this green movement? Just as the trees and plants convert Carbon dioxide to Oxygen, replenishing or renewing our atmosphere with fresh oxygen, so that our ecological environment (also consisting of human and other species of life) can “sustain” in this world for a long time, we need to have mechanisms, community and possibly structure which carry on the same endeavor – sustainability. So we can have Sustainable communities, sustainable buildings, sustainable processes and mechanism. Metaphorically, the term “Green” has been used to mean “sustainability”, being inspired from the color of trees/plants in general, which otherwise essay the nature defined role of sustainability.
In the Built environment space, we have “Green Buildings” which thanks to the pioneering role of Robert K Watson and the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in the development of LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Ratings system have become benchmark for sustainability. In India, there is the Indian Green Buildings Council (IGBC), a licentiate of the USGBC’s LEED® rating system, which promotes the development of “Green buildings” in India. The Indian Government is also promoting an indigenously developed rating system GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment), promoted by TERI (The Environmental Research Institute) and also the Energy conservation Star ratings promoted by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) for and based on the usage of electronic/electrical/power appliances and machineries.
Such small “Green”steps taken today will go a long way in having a sustainable and safe life tomorrow for all of us.