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It does have a bus lane on either side. Thats what I heard on the news.

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I agree with Srivatsa - roads are not a solution to more cars! I did read in the paper that we are getting 1000 new busses in Bangalore - low floor/A/C etc - as an initiative to get car users to switch. I'm glad someone in the ministry thinks that way.

I just see these monstrocities - a money making swindle! The contract greases and pleases too many vested interests. Where as a mono rail or an effective bus transport system doesnt do as much. And i think that is the crux of this all!

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I completely agree with yajaman. As long as each and every one demands the luxury of driving their personal cars,  and as long as newer private vehicles mercilessly flood our roads daily, no matter what we have name it the expensive bridges, flyovers, underpasses , elevated expressway or any fancy names, our streets will continue to be clogged. No doubt such projects can he helpful, but in a spree to emulate a 'success' in a different country, we just cannot spend crores on any project without determining the root cause of the problem. What is the need of the hour in any of our cities be it Bangalore or Mumbai, is a clean , safe and effiicient public transport and a strong will within the govt circles and even the public to discourage the usage of private vehicles. I remember a debate in the UK few years ago, where the govt planned to increase the number of lanes in an overcrowded motorway and some sane people advised that any amount of 'widening' wont help as number of cars are daily added to the roads and instead invest in the Railways. What we need is a pragmatic and a sensible approach.

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I have been exchanging e-mails with independent transport planners / NGOs in Mumbai for a while.

HCC built it, people marvel it, etc.

Yet the fact is that until last few weeks hardly any thought had been given to entry and exit routing. Much of the time saved is nullified here and there is no way out of this, it was a reality denied and hidden.

The other unscientific adventure would have been if they had persisted with original idea of speed limit of 100 KPH (they have now reduced speed limit to 50KPH and 30KPH at turns). Thankfully novices like me have managed to get our voice heard. No one in position of authority had done any planning around stopping distances and inverse relation bewteen speed and capacity. Few of us outsiders poked and asked, what will happen at two acute angle turns on either ends at such fast speeds. Delhi has set us a nice example of 7 odd vehicles being flung over a flyover at sharp turning points. What is Mumbai's disaster management plan - do they have chopers to air lift, life gaurds and boats..............no news on these fronts.

Long time ago, a UK firm as consultants suggested this ought to be a rail route - who cares about mass transit. The bus lanes have been agreed not because any one in authority had a bright spark or soft corner for public transport - its on the back of a major lobbying done by NGO groups. Sadly, the BEST will pay Rs 3000 per bus per month as toll charges - so much for supporting public/mass transit.

Its FREE for travel for 5 days and then toll begins. Once the toll starts an estimated 75K vehicles will use it (work out what % that is out of Mumbai's 1 million vehicles). 

50% of Mumbai commutes to work by walking!! 40% use buses and trains (which do 12 million passenger trips a day). 

The money spent on sea link = 6000 brand new buses of decent make. Its a no brainer as to how the money could have been used for maximum benefit of maximum people (rather than less than 2% vehicle owners). 

The High Court has asked BMC to implement traffic restraining scheme (this is a PIL langushing since 8 or more years) - authorities are yet to respond to this. Ironically, the best example of congestion charge helping alleviate congestion will come in the form of the sea-link!! The toll charge at Rs 50/- will be the sole reason why the sea link traffic will run smoothly (for a couple of years as by then half a million more vehicles will crop up). If for a moment we imagine there was no toll, that all the money was a donation by a sheikh in Dubai...........imagine the number of vehicles making a bee line to use the latest road that promises a faster ride (anyone who understands concept of stopping distances will know, more cars = less speed), imagine the induced congestion (a jargon from transport world). So, believe it or not, if my hypothesis is right, we will be giving ourselves a proof of congestion charging / traffic restrain schemes working. 

BTW - BRTS is in limbo, much due to idiotic median flyovers on the two highways of Mumbai - no one has figured out how to implement a la Bogota. In the mean time - unheard, un-advertised, untalked about - a kerb side bus lane has been in operation on one side of Haji-Ali with an increase in speed and throughput of buses by 30%. There is now growing recognition of the fact that every bus priority trick needs to be considered rather than just Bogota style BRT.

Finally, unrelated but related, MMRD continues its spending spree - 61 skywalks are being planned. This despite the fact that Metro cinema pedestrian subway with lifts, gaurds and lights (all life long overheads) is not used by even 100 people in an hour (pretty much the same with Bandra skywalk which is a good 1km or so long). Metro cinema subway cost 20 crores - all money which could have made for more buses in Mumbai (which has 3.3K buses doing 4.7 million passenger trips per day, and these buses could double their load factors if there were more buses).

Someone sent me an e-mail suggesting - look at the bright side. Delhi got cycle lanes because of BRT. Someone sent me an e-mail 2 weeks ago of pre-opening sea link and said 'what a majestic view it gave us of Mumbai'. My response - its tragic that we need a BRT to get  a cycle lane, its even more tragic we need a coastal road to appreciate our coastline.

Of course, there will be contrary views.......the floor is open.

ASJ

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Whats the point in bringing in more people into South Mumbai everyday? More investment should be done to create world class CBDs with good connectivity in Suburbs.

Sanjay 

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One of the lane on the sealink should have been bus lane or should have been reserved for the upcoming Mumbai Metro to run 'on grade' on this sealink. It would have benefitted all class of people and  moved most of the people faster rather than limiting to those who have the 'money'.

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