Urban News

The Deccan Chronicle  20.10.2010

Oct. 19: They were supposed to be a solution to traffic congestion on roads. But the Traffic Transit Management Centres (TTMC) in Jayanagar and Kengeri where commuters were expected to park their cars and hop on to buses, have become more of a problem.

To begin with, the parking lot for cars at the Jaynagar TTMC is on an open terrace on the fourth floor. Not only is there no shelter for the parked cars, but also no escalator or lift to take commuters to the ground floor and board the buses. Additionally, a large number of buses still park on the road next to the TTMC instead of inside it, blocking traffic till the BTM Main Road. Commuters using the Kengeri TTMC complain it is hard to find the entrance and even harder to get on to the highway from the exit point.

This deplorable state of affairs has caused concern about what the city can expect from the 14 other TTMCs planned across the city in the first phase of the project being executed with financial grants from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). With plans to establish 12 more TTMCs on the Outer Ring Road as well, commuters are keeping their fingers crossed that the experience will get better with time. Many are clearly hoping that the inconveniences they are having to put with at the Jayanagar and Kengeri TTMCs are merely teething problems that will be corrected and not repeated in the other transit centres set to come up soon.

“As the parking lot for cars is on the fourth floor, old people find it difficult to get to the buses on the ground floor in the absence of a lift. Also, the car park is open and exposed to the elements. The exit of the TTMC is poorly designed as it opens to a median. So, when a car comes out of the TTMC, all the traffic on the right side of the median on the road is held up. Is it too much to expect for such problems to have been anticipated before the construction began?” asks an angry commuter at the Jayanagar TTMC.

“People are supposed to park their cars at the TTMC and take a bus. But where is the parking space? Shockingly, most of the cars that are parked at the TTMC in Jayanagar are not of commuters taking a bus, but of locals who are out shopping in the area,” says Pravin Jha, founder, Praja Organisation, regretting that the TTMCs are not turning out to be the traffic hubs they were supposed to be. “The government must reconsider the locations it has chosen for the TTMCs. For instance a TTMC in Whitefields cannot be called a hub,” he adds.

Hindustan Times  19.10.2010

Locals from Juhu, Bandra and Khar marched from Bandra Talao to the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) headquarters in Bandra-Kurla Complex in protest against the elevated Charkop-Bandra Metro route on Monday. They alleged that the project was a sell-out to private companies.

Sherley Singh, a resident of Juhu said, “The MMRDA wants to sell out to private companies and offer them commercial space to exploit. This is the real reason why the MMRDA wants to build only elevated routes.”

Oshiwara resident and activist Kunickaa Lall said that the MMRDA shouldn’t behave like a profit-making body. “There has to be a human face to development. You can’t plan according to the funds you have.”

MMRDA metropolitan commissioner, Ratnakar Gaikwad dismissed the protest and said, “We are very clear that an underground metro is not feasible either financially or technically. We had planned to have the Colaba-Bandra route as an underground one, but that too had to be shelved because the Centre refused the funds.”

“We can’t stall the progress of 20 lakh people just because people occupying a 2-km stretch are protesting.”

 The protestors met GR Madan, director (Mass Rapid Transit System) who said: “They have some technical suggestions for us about the underground Metro. We plan to call our consultants and see whether the suggestions are feasible or not.”