A road oft travelled

There's a storm brewing in Mumbai about the city's proposed coastal road, which would stretch from Nariman Point to Kandivali and would be another of the state's attempts to address the problems of its most lucrative and congested business hub.

As usual, environmentalists are crying foul about the ecological and environmental hazards and there are dark whispers about builder lobbies and vested interests.

For many of us Mumbaikers, this harks back to the time when similar battles were fought before the construction of Nariman Pont and later Cuffe Parade - the great citadels of the city's middle-class professional and personal aspiration.

Since the construction of the above two, there have been other even more striking developments: North Mumbai has inched further up the mainland way past Juhu, then the JVPD Scheme then Versova and even further. Restaurants, coffee shops, hair salons and swanky colonies have transformed the far-flung marshlands that comprised these parts that few in the city had visited before.

And mirroring this, Mumbai's other suburbs, Bandra-Kurla and Lower Parel, have also been transformed beyond recognition - the first as a Dubai-mirroring conglomerate of expensively constructed office blocks and the latter into one of the city's lifestyle hubs.

Come to the subject of development and infrastructure: which car owner rushing to the airport from Malabar Hill has not found herself thanking the Sea Link for its convenience and expediency?

(Of course, even as Mumbai has witnessed growth, it has seen other areas wither away: Colaba Causeway, once the epitome of stylish shopping, has become a sad and low-end place; as for the stretch between Churchgate and Marine Drive, once known the "Park Street of Mumbai" boasting top Chinese and Italian eateries and the iconic Ambassador Hotel, it too has considerably lost its sheen.)

But much of this development has been misguided or even cynical. As is known, the money spent on constructing the highways and sea links, which benefit a minuscule of the city's populace, could have well been spent on improving public transport.

Seven-and-a half million commuters are transported on Mumbai's suburban trains each morning into Churchgate and VT and, by any account, it is a harrowing commute: crowded, dirty, smelly and completely out of sync with the rest of the "fastest growing economy" spiel.

Surely, the drivers of this economy, the students, stock brokers, banking executives, bureaucrats, traders, chartered accountants, lawyers and business executives deserve better.

Obviously, going by past experience, the greater common good has not been a priority for our decision-makers and an active and vigilant citizenry is crucial to ensure that chicanery and self-aggrandisement do not run away with themselves.

But we also need more knowledge of how development has affected Mumbaikers. Lower Parel, built on the broken back of Mumbai's legendary cotton mills workers after a long trade union battle, today attracts ever increasing numbers of shoppers, revellers, movie-goers, restaurant-lovers and pleasure seekers. Perhaps some of them are the sons and daughters of the old mill workers who have earned their place in the new economy, if not as consumers today, then as the service-providers at the multiplexes and malls - who, with hard work and GDP growth, are on their way to higher perches soon.

It's something I have often wondered about in the seesaw between development and the greater common good.

As for the coastal road, what else but to rephrase John Lennon: "Imagine there's no agenda/It's easy if you try/If all could enjoy sea-facing public spaces/And sit in gardens under an equal sky."

Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer malavikasmumbai@gmail.com