FE Edirorial: The city and the promise

Wed, Oct 14 02:14 AM

Since Mumbai and Maharashtra have voted, let's recall the tallest of encomiums and the biggest of promises made. Sonia Gandhi has declared that her party, in the state and at the Centre, is determined to make Mumbai an international financial centre. But this is not substantially different from what a report of the high-powered committee declared two years ago. Even at that time, according to one report, Mumbai occupied a lowly 209th spot among 215 world metros in terms of quality of life. What have the Mumbai headlines screamed since? Attacks on migrants (whose contribution is a big factor in the cultural and economic narrative of the metropolis), the ritual of monsoon rains bringing the city to a standstill and perhaps India's worst-ever terrorist attacks. The one photo-op to add upbeat colour to a bleak scenario has been the country's first ever sea bridge—much delayed, not yet completed, but a pretty picture nonetheless. Whatever the shortfalls in delivery—power shortages, housing issues, storm-water drainage systems yet to be fixed, public transport deficits and so on—people, in India and across the world keep putting their faith in Mumbai.

Earlier this year, Forbes—based on the fact that the bulk of the wealth that was created in India as its per capita income grew by over 400% over the last 25 years, based on purchasing power parity, came from urban centres like Mumbai—declared India's financial capital will play a centrestage role among the dynamic global cities that will shape this first truly urban, global century. Per capita income in Mumbai is already striding ahead of the national average. Now, Sonia and her cohorts are promising to pull it up to Rs 1 lakh a year. This is not beyond the city's reach. Remember, this is home to Dharavi, where 6 lakh people squeezed onto 500 acres have managed to churn out respectable profits from recycling used cardboard, glass, plastic and so on. But, let's get real. Let's face the ground realities. Let's look governance challenges in the face. Take the airport example: the Chhatrapati Shivaji facility founded six decades ago is struggling to make do with just 2,000 acres to cope with 25 million passengers a year, traffic that Kuala Lumpur services with 10,000 acres. Meanwhile, the Navi Mumbai international airport keeps getting delayed, as different ministries wrangle over it. So, however well-intentioned the encomiums to Mumbai and Maharashtra may be, they seem completely out of sync with real-time governance. Will the next government, please, please start doing something substantive.

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