Bombay Then

Bombay was originally a cluster of seven Koli islands called "Seven Little Islands". The seven Islands which were woven into one city were: (i) Colaba (ii) Old Woman's Island (iii) Mumbai (iv) Mazagaon (v) Worli (vi) Matunga & (vii) Mahim. Earlier These islands were a part of Gujarat. When the Muslim ruler Sultan Muhamed Begada captured the islands, Bombay was till then inhabited by the Hindus Stone age implements have been found at several sites in these islands. Later, around the third century BC, the coastal regions, and presumably the islands, were part of the Magadhan empire ruled by the emperor Ashok. The empire ebbed, leaving behind some Buddhist monks and the deep-sea fishermen called "Kolis", whose stone goddess, "Mumbadevi", gave her name to the modern metropolis. Bombay changed hands many times. The oldest structures in the archipelago--- the caves at Elephanta, and part of the Walkeshwar temple complex probably date from this time. Modern sources identify a 13th century Raja Bhimdev who had his capital in Mahikawati-- present-day Mahim, and Prabhadevi. Presumably the first merchants and agriculturists settled in Mumbai at this time. In 1343 the island of Salsette, and eventually the whole archipelago, passed to the Sultan of Gujarat. The mosque in Mahim dates from this period. Bombay soon reformed into an important trading port. Development and reclamation started and the then Governor Gerald Aungier (1672-1677) encouraged businessmen from all over to come and settle. Historians have given him the title of "Father of Bombay" because it was in this period Bombay boomed. to become a prime commercial centre.. By 1862 the seven islands had joined together to form one huge mass of land. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 Bombay prospered as an International port, and reinforced its position as a major commercial and industrial center in India. In 1947 Bombay became the capital of Bombay State. In 1960 Bombay state was dissolved and the state of Maharashtra came into being, with Bombay as its state capital. In 1995 Bombay changed its name to Mumbai. The name Mumbai is derived from "Mumbadevi" the patron goddess of the Koli fisher folks, the earliest known inhabitants.

Mumbai Now
Mumbai or originally Bombay- the Island city has come a long way welcoming people from different states and religion by offering gamut of social or financial opportunities to these "visitors". In face of offering these opportunities openhandedly the city has neglected the implication of this on its resources natural and unnatural ad especially -the Carrying Capacity of the city!

Year

Net Migration (in mn)

Net Migration as % of decade increase

1951

0.95

79.7

1961

0.60

51.8

1971

0.89

48.7

1981

1.07

47.0

1991

0.28

16.8

Share of Migrants* from Major States to Mumbai (%)

States

Year 1981

Year 1991

Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total

Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh Gujarat

48.84 31.66 43.51 47.02 30.58 42.10

18.49 11.69 16.38 22.25 13.73

19.7

11.82 18.38 13.86 10.53 15.87 12.13

Karnataka

5.44 11.78

7.41

5.19 10.21

6.69

Tamil Nadu

2.58

5.38

3.45

2.57

5.83

3.54

Over the years migration from different states has contributed 17 percent increase in population there has been substantial increase in influx of people to Mumbai since 1951 which has caused various problems especially depletion of the natural resources of the area, such as v Natural resource depletion v Food security v Social disruptions v The land use changes as related to population pressure, land degradation and available linkages to a market economy. Effects of migration and population pressure on Natural resources HOUSING PROBLEM

The housing situation in the city since long continues to be critical. Currently more than 50percent of citys population is estimated to be living in sub-human living environment. Many areas of the city have experienced extremely high densities. These problems of Bombay city have drawn the attention of state/town planners as long back as 1950. They diagnosed that most of Bombay s ills were the product of excessive concentration of population in the southe rn part of Bombay Island and proposed various decentralization strategies to relieve excessive pressure on basic infrastructure and reducing congestion in the Island city. UNEMPLOYMENT

Year

Total unemployed (in '000s)*

1981

292.8

1991

674.4

1998

743.8

Urbanization

Urbanization has a deleterious effect on mangroves. Mangroves, forests of salt-tolerant trees and shrubs that grow in the shallow tidal waters of estuaries and coastal areas in tropical regions

INFRASTRUCTURE IN MUMBAI NOW:

Transportation in Mumbai Is a huge problem, especially due to the geography of the island. There is a large concentration of all the commercial and administrative functions on the southern end of the island due to the fact that the fort was located there and has since developed into a modern Central Business District. The only highways that exist in Mumbai are the East and West Highways that run north/south along the eastern and western coasts of the island. The city's system was modeled after the London transportation system with the exception of the Underground Metro. Mumbai's lack of a subway system has been severely detrimental to the commuting congestion and times that the city experiences. Mumbai has several different bus systems, all owned by private companies. The largest is the BEST bus system with 3031 buses which carry an average of 5 million people per day. The road network consists of 1431 kilometers of thoroughfares which handle an average of 6.2 million people per day. However, the most used mode of transportation is rail. The main railroads follow the same paths of the highways and terminate at Victoria Terminus on the east and Bombay Central Station on the west. The number of commuters using railroads has increased five fold between 1959 and 1989. Problems of Mumbai Today

Today one of the major problems in Mumbai is traveling distances. The average distance traveled per passenger of mass transportation is 6 kilometers, nearly one-third the length of the island of Mumbai. Because of the overcrowding on the mass transit system, many people are switching to scooters or mopeds. This is problematic because it does not help with the pollution problem that Mumbai faces. Also non-transportation uses of roads, such as squatting, slums and haphazard parking has not helped the situation much either. However, one of the major problems that Mumbai has with its transportation system is that it is not run by one governing body. All of the different modes of transportation are owned by different groups, both private and governmental. If they were able to forma city transportation agency, then perhaps progress towards better modes of mass transit, such as a subway, would be possible.

Is Mumbai dying?

The power and water shortage in the city has made life even more miserable and there seems to be no way out. In the latest directive from the municipality, newly-constructed multi-plexes, buildings, malls, etc. will get only a limited amount of water just as the older buildings will face shortage for ever. Quite a way to attract investors to the state. And in the midst of all this was the attempt to change the transport system to give it an international look. The train services are getting worse everyday. The millennium rake introduced in the suburban services is nothing but a scandal. The coaches are the same, there is no emphasis on the comfort of the passengers, what with wooden seats, no air-conditioning and a pathetic audio system to give information to passengers. At least Mumbaikars had expected something akin to the metro coaches in Delhi and Kolkata which are swanky and cool. The majority of the buses are still old which look as if they have been made by cottage industry. The road transport service in Mumbai is creaking under the load and with inadequate road infrastructure.

Social Insecurity!!!!
Internationalization has meant increased freedom of movement of capital and those who possess it, labour mobility is not an intrinsic characteristic of the present system. For most workers and for the unemployed, globalization means hardly more than the old notion of international division of labour: capital "shopping" for cheaper wages in various national markets and relocating there as a function of lower costs. It is much more likely that the affluent go south than that those in the periphery visit the centre, other than through the fortuitous routes of illegal immigration and exile. A myriad of economic, political, legal, regulatory, and security factors militates against their doing so.

Population Growth Migration Refugee Flows Hyperurbanization The Decline of Communities MUMBAI VS OTHER METROS

CDP: City Development Plan A REMEDY

OBJECTIVES OF CITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Enhancing City Productivity Reducing Poverty Improving Urban Governance and Enhancing Financial Sustainability

SCOPE OF CITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The CDP outlines the strategic policy and investment interventions to achieve the vision of Assess the existing situation with regards to demographic and economic growth, infrastructure services, municipal finances, etc. Identify the gaps in service delivery Outline the issues faced by the Citys poor Prepare a vision and sectoral strategic framework outlining the goals, strategies, interventions/projects to achieve the vision and Formulate a city investment plan with appropriate financing strategies and an implementation action plan. Focus on the reforms to be carried out at the state and local level in consonance with the vision and strategic plan outlined to sustain the planned interventions. HOW TO ACHIVE CDP

The CDP presents the city development issues, deficiency analysis and a management framework outlining strategies and guidelines for future growth. The plan provides a distinctive thrust for introducing enabling rather than restrictive regulatory mechanisms through realistic planning and management interventions within the overall regulatory and institutional framework. A development implementation action plan comprising of implementation schedule, role of stakeholders, regulations and institutional strengthening mechanisms are formulated, with special emphasis on institutionalising the monitoring mechanisms. The CDP - considered as an inter-sectoral exercise - took into account the existing situation including assessing the current status of municipal services, its fiscal status, operational and management procedures. The CDP also took into consideration the works and plans of other government and quasi- government agencies contributing towards the growth and development of the city and was prepared by undertaking the following tasks:

Visioning Exercise Situation Analysis Formulation of Goals & Strategies Capital Investment Plan & Project Scheduling Stakeholder Workshop

strategies and action plans required in key sectoral areas viz., v Governance v Poverty Alleviation v Economic Development v Environment v Water and Sanitation v Solid Waste Management v Traffic and Transportation v Health and Education v Municipal Finance

G I S- Technology comes to help !

To compound woes, it was found that the BMC, which rules over a city that's arguably the richest in the country and rated amongst leading cities in the world, did not have a Geographic Information System (GIS). This computer mapping and simulation facility is, in fact, available with several citybased private companies. Town planners are convinced that had BMC utilised GIS and computer simulation models on July 26 and the ensuing days, it could have given a fairly correct picture of the deluge and the potential danger areas. GIS in recent years has emerged as a valuable forecasting tool especially because of its ability to create complex digital maps with voluminous data. "We should have had a detailed plan of all the waterways in the city, with details of cross-section, longitudinal profile, drainage basin and catchments areas of each of the gutters, creeks and rivers, not necessarily in that order. It is unfortunate that BMC does not even have a detailed drainage map of Mumbai city," says Phatak. And to compound the drainage problems, the Mithi river, which is one of the biggest carrier of rainwater from the hills of Powai, rose to record levels of flooding. The river has been blocked at various points along its 15-km course through the eastern suburbs, mainly to accommodate the Mumbai airport runway and the financial hub at the Bandra Kurla Complex, not to mention the extensive choking at the river mouth. Little wonder that environmentalists compared this to a coronary thrombosis when almost all the lowlying areas along the river route got flooded.