One piece of evidence I found in the last six years since my arrival in India from a European Country is this: everything in big cities effectively makes people move through a highly complex puzzle to find the way out. And not doing what he intended in a reasonable lapse of time.
It may seem an exaggeration, but look at these facts:
1. Localizing easily a flat, a place, or shop, with the name of the street and the sequencing number, is the simplest way in any city. But in India, there seems to be an intentional will to make people waste their time, till despair, to reach the destination, exhausted (of course, for the first time!).
One must take the precaution to have enough time to reach where he needs to, raffling all the complexities: works in progress, cars wrongly parked in the second line, streets cut. The taxi man asks once, twice, to understand where is the street or road he’s trying to reach!
2. There are no numbers to identify the buildings, as said. They probably were there, but with the metro works or others, they disappeared, and the helpful landmarks now are the references people used: “opposite” to Hospital XX, or like. It would be straightforward and quickly accessible if the street had the number univocally attributed. Everything results in an unforgettable experience for the wrong reasons, like a loss in a labyrinthine neighbourhood.
– Big cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and practically all Indian cities could have some main roads as a reference, crossed by other streets to make one or several dorsal spines to identify the prominent areas. The crossing streets could have a logic: alphabetic, for naming them on local heroes, and the numbers in a particular direction, for example, starting near the sea and growing in the opposite direction.
If each city could spend some money to contract a consulting firm with experience in Operational Research to reorganize it, the money spent would be repaid in less than one year! That firm would find a way to make the places in search more accessible to any person, with a clear signalling system.
This reorganization would free a massive economy for the public (mainly in time not wasted) and for taxis or rickshaws, in particular. The time to ask and ask repeatedly makes one feel like at a chaotic African country at war, without any “human mind” dedicated to putting order and making it accessible.
3. Another issue: the public works seem to occur without considering the residents, commuters, or cars. The Company starts, but no one knows when it ends or if it is to end. For example, at Tilak Road, in Mumbai, which takes you from the SV Road to the Santa Cruz (W) Railway Station, there is a big hole 1.5 x 1.5 meters, 1m deep, open for over ten months! Incredible is that this can happen in the middle of the Financial Capital of India. Furthermore, there are many holes in any street and sideways, making it very dangerous to walk.
Is there a Commissionaire to make the city friendly to the citizens? There needs to be a genuine concern for the residents, and the work must end in a reasonable, short, fixed time. For each day in excess on the combined, the bidder must be fined progressively more for the defaulting days.
4. Currently, the whole of Mumbai is overwhelmed with the work for the metro. But no metro line seems to have a coherent plan to advance orderly, quickly and continuously. In many locations, machines open big holes for pillars, but without sequence, and the machine goes further, but in the middle are craters, which create a great mess and disorder.
Partially finishing work, removing all the bias of protection of the workers and the cars, would be extremely helpful, putting the city cleaner in some parts, and making the cars and rickshaws circulate more easily. The town could be more humanized and easy to cross.
The Mumbaikars are too patient! Soon, it seems they consider all disorders very normal to walk in streets with plenty of mud, stones, iron bars, holes, material works and dog droppings everywhere. They must think that it is their fate or ‘fado’ as said in Portuguese!
One positive note: The yellow board Clean Mumbai, Green Mumbai is giving good dividends, at least at one place, around the Police Station at the junction of Linking Road with Juhu Tara Road. Now, all the abandoned police cars which were around the Station are inside the land of the Station. And in the nearby places, there are now fewer cars left. Did the Police take any action for this? If so, it was very effective and is worth expanding to all of Mumbai and other cities of India.
I read on 17 April 2023 that the authority had taken 5550 cars off the streets, stationed there for a long time, after having notified 9,900 owners. These 5550 will be auctioned. Well done, and all the residents and commuters must be very grateful. This must be a normal procedure, notifying first and taking the cars to sell, not only in Mumbai but in all the cities of India.
An idea: it would be worth taking top Officers from all the Metros of the Country and the Communication Directors of the Buses Co. in all cities, to the Delhi Metro. And make them spend one full day, morning and evening, travelling in the metro to hear the repeated recommendations for the general public. And to be aware of the outcomes: how people behave, having a look at the cleanness inside and around!
We need to learn from those who teach us. Ing. Shreedaran, Ex-President of Delhi Metro, did a great job, continued by his successors, of educating generations of commuters. And the recommendations are to live everywhere, not only in the metro, making life enjoyable for every citizen around us.
It is important to practice first and then teach all the norms of politeness and correct behaviour. This correctness gives high dignity to interpersonal relations, and there is respect for each other rights and a desire to make the travel time pleasant for everyone.
I am immensely interested in discovering some public places that are well-kept and clean in Mumbai to walk and enjoy. There must be a concern for making new, lovely gardens with flowers and greenery where people can rest with their kids.
There must also be a real concern from the Municipality to know when/where something is wrong with the roads and streets, if there are plenty holes, because it rained a lot, the prior week, to put all right, the soonest possible. This way of acting shows consideration and respect for all the residents and pedestrian commuters.
It is elementary to put a phone number dedicated to the claims and someone responsible for solving them as soon as possible, giving feedback to the claimer. Only this way can we reinforce trust in the authorities in charge, involving the residents in their problems simultaneously.
(The Author is Professor at AESE-Business School (Lisbon), at IIMRohtak (India), author of The Rise of India)
