Infrastructure: Mumbai's first theme park, and other milestones

SUNDAY MiD DAY turns 32 Click here for more stories 2001 JJ flyover eases traffic woes The 24km long Makhdoom Ali Mahimi flyover popularly known as the JJ flyover connecting commuters and pedestrians from JJ Hospital near Nagpada to Crawford Market in just twoandahalf minutes opens Earlier free movement in the area was impossible One of the most congested neighbourhoods in the city it buzzed with vendors vehicles handcarts and pedestrians But the flyover helps in easing traffic A birdrsquoseye view of the JJ flyover PicShadab Khan 1986 Mumbai gets its first theme park Mumbaiites finally get their own Disneyland that they can frequent with their family friends and loved ones Essel World a theme park owned by Pan India Paryatan Pvt Ltd PIPPL is the first amusement park to come up in the city at Gorai It boasts of 13 family rides nine thrill rides and nine childrenrsquos rides along with a dance floor and a bowling alley 1990 Biggest veggie market in city Almost two decades after the birth of Navi Mumbai the worldrsquos largest planned city commissions a wholesale agricultural produce market at Vashi to supply vegetables and fruits to entire Mumbai Known as Agricultural Produce Market Committee APMC it soon becomes the headquarters of all agricultural products coming into Mumbai and Navi Mumbai 2002 India gets its first sixlane expressway The Mumbai Pune Expressway officially known as the Yashwantrao Chavan Mumbai Pune Expressway Indiarsquos first sixlane concrete accesscontrolled tolled expressway completed by Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation MSRDC opens The first phase opens in 2000 and the entire route is made operational from 2002 Then amp Now Rahul Asthana Former MMRDA commissioner Traffic is the cityrsquos biggest enemy Infrastructure encompasses public transport system solid waste management electricity and water supply In the last three decades the biggest change that we have seen in Mumbai is the rising population increase in private vehicles consequently resulting in the increase in traffic As a result though projects have been developed Mumbaiites have not being able to reap their true benefits The Eastern Freeway and The JogeshwariVikhroli Link Road JVLR have been built to ease traffic congestion but at any given time these roads are jampacked Likewise on the railways front the Central Railway and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority MMRDA have worked in unison towards better signaling and rakes to increase their capacity but the population has been rising simultaneously In terms of power Mumbai is one of the best cities in the country with good power supply The water supply has been augmented by 400 million litres per day thanks to the Vaitarna project In order to solve the waste management problem the MMRDA has zeroed in on regional land filling sites for five corporations Thane Bhiwandi Mira Bhayander Vasai Virar and Kalyan As part of this scheme waste can be dumped on a land scouted by a private operator who will be in charge of segregating the waste and disposing it offu00a0The traffic issue can be addressed only by ensuring that people with private vehicles are encouraged to use the public transport That can happen only when there are better buses and better railway services We also need to explore our rich coastline and tap water transport This will ease traffic considerably We need to have more sea links better coastal routes and encourage the use of ferries Sepia memory Alpana Lath Sawai on the night of November 26 2008 I was at my parentsrsquo home in Borivli When my father told me that terrorists had attacked Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus CST I thought he was being his usual dramatic self Our first impression when the attacks were confirmed was that they were confined to CST Then we heard terrorists had spread out all over South Mumbai and the city was under attack We called people in that part of town to see whether everyone was safe My husband had boarded a train from CST a little before the terrorists laid siege Other people were supposed to dine at the Taj Hotel but had cancelled reservations someone had left Leopold Cafe 20 minutes before the shootout there We kept thinking that the attacks were going to end instead they went on for four days People we knew experienced threat firsthand and no one felt safe It was like watching a gangster film Mumbai and its people were robbed of their innocence the impenetrable faccedilade and mask of the city that never slept slipped 2611 changed us Alpana Lath Sawai was Editor SUNDAY MiD DAY from 2005 to 2010u00a0