Choking to death

The facts are scary: every day, over 1,25,000 commuters board trains at the Dadar West Railway station and 60,000 buy daily and season tickets at the Dadar Central station.an estimated four lakh people pass through the station daily.

The Central and Western railway lines meet at Dadar, outstation trains halt here and almost all bus routes cross this congested part of the city. For outsiders, Dadar is just a sweaty hour in the day, but for residents it is a never-ending tale of claustrophobic existence.

Dadar8217;s is the story of a mega urban plan gone haywire. In 1898, Improvement Trust8217;, an autonomous body affiliated to the Municipal Corporation, wasset up to develop the Dadar-Matunga-Wadala-Sion area. Under this plan, the Parsi, Hindu and Telugu Colonies and co-operative societies were developed. According to the strict guidelines of this plan, buildings did not exceed three storeys.

Not only have building regulations been flouted, but the approach roads to the station are so packed with hawkers and parked vehicles that taxi drivers refuse to go there. People have to walk nearly half a kilometre elbowing and pushing their way to reach the station 8211; which takes at least 15 minutes at peak hours.

Residents are angry and frustrated. Mamata Shahane, a housewife living on Gokhale Road, has to ferry her ailing mother out of the neighbourhood to Matunga so that she can catch a train to reach her doctor. 8220;How can one expect old people to board trains at Dadar? They can8217;t shove and push like everybody else!quot; she rues.

More pathetic is the case of the physically handicapped bound for Apang Maitree an organisation involved in counselling andmatch-making the disabled, whose office is located right outside the station. One way out of this hell-hole appears to be the proposed Krantiveer Nana Patil Hawkers8217; Plaza. Hawkers who can prove that they have been operating from the area prior to December 31, 1996, will be shifted here. This hawkers8217; plaza is to be constructed at a municipal garage located between Elphinstone Road and Dadar stations.

Ward officer Madhav Weling informs that as soon as the construction of a shed is completed, the first batch of hawkers will be shifted there. The rest will be accommodated in the six-storey building.Shifting the flower market was the first step in this direction.

quot;We have taken the hawkers into confidence. Besides, they won8217;t need to pay haftas any more. And customers will visit the Hawker8217;s Plaza in the same way as people flock to Fashion Street,quot; claims Corporator Ganesh Mahale. He admits that the Railway police and the BMC will have to maintain a strict vigil to ensure that new hawkers do notoccupy the area which has been cleared. Both Mahale and Weling have stated that this project will take over a year to complete.

Parking is another problem. Given the spiralling real estate prices in this once-traditional Maharashtrian suburb, only the very affluent can afford to buy land. With at least two cars per family and no garages available, the road becomes a permanent parking place.

8220;The parking problem has been aggravated by the misuse of garages,8221; says Mumbai8217;s former city engineer S Parulkar. 8220;With rocketing real estate prices, nobody wants to waste8217; a Rs 10 lakh garage for a car that costs Rs two lakh. 8221;

The Central Dadar stationtoo, is throttled by traffic. The Pune-bound Asiad8217; buses run by the state government leave from Central Dadar. over 30 private bus operators have set up makeshift stalls in the vicinity. Buses for almost every destination in India leave from Khodadad Circle and Hotel Pritam. According to Ward Officer F north S K Karvande, these stalls are authorised andthe owners cannot be evicted.

Karvande admits that these bus stands should be shifted out at the earliest in order to ease the traffic problem. quot;The Anik depot at Wadala could serve as an alternate site. This plan has to be a joint effort of the traffic police, the Road Transport Organisation RTO and the BMC. This will take time,quot; says Karvande. People wanting to travel outside Mumbai just take a train or bus to Dadar. Later, they will have to shell out an additional Rs 25 to take a cab to Wadala. If this option is to work, it will require a major change in the mind-set of citizens as well.