"The road was intended as a solution to the gridlocked roads of India's commercial capital. But Mumbai is a densely populated peninsula, 25 miles (40km) long and 6 miles wide, where land is as scarce as snow. The new coastal road had to be built on land reclaimed from the Arabian Sea. An engineering marvel, it connects north and south, and is a dream for car owners, who used to average about 5mph through Mumbai's congestion."
"At Marine Drive in the south where it starts, cars now dip down into an undersea tunnel for more than a mile and, after making great loops across the shimmering sea where the road is built on stilts, they emerge 6 miles away in Worli in 10 minutes instead of the 45 minutes it took previously. But an estimated 64% of the Mumbai metropolitan region's 22.5 million residents travel by overcrowded buses and trains."
"Mumbai is known for its graphic inequality, its gleaming high-rises where the rich live with panoramic views of the Arabian Sea standing next to windowless hovels perched over drains. It is home to 90 of India's billionaires, but also to more than six million slum dwellers, about 55% of central Mumbai's population. Now Mumbai has a new symbol of the gulf between rich and poor:"
Mumbai exhibits stark inequality, with 90 billionaires alongside over six million slum dwellers, about 55% of central Mumbai's population. A new eight-lane coastal motorway was built on land reclaimed from the Arabian Sea, linking Marine Drive and Worli via undersea tunnel sections and stilts. The road cuts journey times for car users from roughly 45 minutes to about 10 minutes. Around 64% of the 22.5 million metropolitan residents travel by overcrowded buses and trains, where daily fatalities occur. The project cost billions of public money and is presented as benefiting affluent drivers rather than expanding or repairing public transport for the majority.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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