Bridge the communication gap

Who exactly is in charge of Mumbairsquos roads highways and flyovers Chances are that the average Mumbaikar would respond the BMC The truth is that Mumbairsquos surface transport is handled by three different agencies the BMC the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority MMRDA and the Public Works Department PWD One of the reasons that Mumbairsquos roads are in a state they are is mainly because of this multiplicity of agency and that every single one of them works at cross purposes The ldquoregularrdquo roads lanes and bylanes are built and looked after by the BMC the flyovers are built and maintained by the MMRDA and the intracity highways the Western and Eastern Express Highways are built and maintained by the PWD The sheer lack of coordination between the BMC MMRDA and PWD is enough to drive a Mumbaikar up the wall Or down a 10inch pothole Even if we ignore the massive corruption in roadbuilding in Mumbai something that prompted the chief minister to recommend the suspension of road contractors last year the sheer confusion and coordination the lack of it that is between the three organisations is enough to drive a Mumbaikar up the wall Or down a 10inch pothole If you travel to Powai via the picturesque Aarey Colony Road adjacent to the Western Express Highway at Goregaon for instance you will realise the farce that is Mumbairsquos surface transport It is the perfect intersection of two BMC roads one MMRDA flyover and of course the highway When driving north from Andheri take a left to head at the same junction towards Goregaon railway station That intersection between PWDrsquos highway and BMCrsquos road is at a steep angle of close to 30 degrees No one talked to each other and as a result vehicles stuck there are in perennial suspended animation The other side of the road takes you to Powai among other areas The road there is a tribute to the meteors that keep hitting the moon and creating thousands of craters on the surface of our sole satellite The MMRDA flyover on the other hand is in competition with the BMC road over the number of potholes per square metre When one agency does not talk to the other even on the simple matter of how to join two roads how can you expect Mumbairsquos roads to be worldclass For that matter even motorable On September 11 2001 in a series of coordinated terror attacks close to 3000 Americans lost their lives in New York and Washington DC Until then most of the internal and external security agencies worked in isolation Soon after 911 the US President created a new Department of Homeland Security a mother agency responsible for eight other agencies including the US Coast Guard and the US Secret Service Only the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency were left out Even there to encourage communication and facilitate exchange of information between the two key agencies the US government created what are called Fusion Centres Today there are 72 such centres in the US The result Not a single external terrorrelated death in the United States since September 2001 How difficult is it really to create a single agency that has the power to keep the BMC the MMRDA and the PWD in check Or at the very least to even talk to each other so that roads do not get jeopardised That is unlikely to happen because rentseeking bureaucrats politicians and contractors feed off each othersrsquo unscrupulousness This is not a cynical view it is realistic Take Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavanrsquos bold announcement in late 2011 that he would order a comprehensive audit of the cityrsquos roads Close to 16 months after the announcement there is hardly any policy announcement to even hint at the governmentrsquos intention to improve Mumbairsquos roads On September 19 2011 he had told this newspaper ldquoHow come the same road contractors get the contract year after year Clearly there are monetary considerations involved at various levels I want to change all thatrdquo But the BMCrsquos perfidy knows no bounds Earlier this week it blacklisted certain sewerage and civil works contractors The next day another controversial civil works firm RPS Infrastructure which is under investigation for fraud was handed a multicrore project The real reason that none of the three agencies wants to report to a nodal organisation is precisely this that their ability to make money on the side will be severely curtailed or at least divided And who would want to part with that kind of money Sachin Kalbag is Executive Editor MiD DAY He tweets at SachinKalbagu00a0