“The Pessimist Sees Difficulty In Every Opportunity. The Optimist Sees Opportunity In Every Difficulty.”

The civic governance is supported and shared by several state arms, which include the Maharashtra Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), the Public Works Department (PWD), the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and the City and Suburban Collector. The Central agencies include the Airports Authority of India, the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT), the  Railways and the military areas scattered all over, to name a few. The CIDCO and MHADA, too, contribute their share of complications.

This arrangement has persisted for decades and the governance structure has withstood various challenges but the need to reform with the changing times is always on the backburner as the existing formation is difficult to dismantle to make room for a new one. However, the message is clear. The different layers of governance have been causing a complicated system. This duality results in creating some serious problems, the prime of which is public safety. The efficiency and accountability of the system has not been examined scientifically so far.

Mumbai has emerged as a magnet and is famous around the world as a City of Dreams. Its reputation as a centre of India’s economic and cultural vitality is unsurpassed. Owing to such publicity, the metropolis continues to swell. Consequently, the challenges of urban development, shortage of land, housing scarcity despite growing demands and urgency for more infrastructure have become more relevant than ever. One innovative solution that has dominated the housing sector is the redevelopment projects. Although this has been viewed as an essential strategy to overcome the city’s housing shortage problems, the over-utilisation of land development norms will complicate the situation in future.

The population growth, urban decline and over-burdened infrastructure have pushed Mumbai into a critical situation that calls for innovative solutions. Although redevelopment projects offer a novel solution to address some of these challenges, replanning Mumbai’s infrastructure vision and deciding priorities with community well-being as focus will be the due expectation from the government. If this happens, Mumbai can undergo a physical facelift which will pave the way for its more balanced development.

The solutions to the problems which are common to Mumbai as well as almost all major cities have been identified by the experts time and again. Shortly, they can be summarised as follows:

– There should be one coordinating agency with full autonomy under the supervision of elected representatives. It should employ experts from different streams so that  farsighted decisions are arrived at.

– The waste management, public transport, civic hygiene, mass housing and all relevant duties for urbanisation should be administered under one umbrella so as to achieve quick coordination.

– establishment of Metropolitan Planning Committees has been envisaged in the 74th constitution amendment but has remained on paper, mostly.

– There should be overall planning to envelope all facets of urbanization.

As is seen in Mumbai and elsewhere, a functional overlap is noticed. Various services where a large number of people are concerned are the functional areas where multiple agencies are working simultaneously. This leads to over-staffing and wastage of resources. Its another effect is that there is lack of coordination: Various agencies working in the same geographical area go ahead without consulting others. For instance, in Mumbai, roads repaired are again and again dug up by various agencies like water supply, drainage, telephone and electricity providers. Another malady is the unwillingness to fix responsibility. In Andheri, a huge flyover was built without providing proper connectivity. So far, nobody has been found guilty for the lapse. Such aberrations happen all the time but are rarely noticed since they are buried under files. Because of the involvement of multiple agencies, it becomes difficult to fix responsibility.

The option of merging of various agencies should be actively considered against the backdrop of the recent tragic event. Public representatives and implementing officers should work in tandem rather than against each other. A decisive municipal commissioner can use her or his powers judiciously for speedy implementation and assigning responsibilities. If they are equally distributed, they will become complementary to each other and any delays between decision making and implementation will be reduced to the minimum.

Now that the concept of ‘smart’ is dominating the atmosphere, it will be advisable to introduce this concept in governance as well. In any urban governance, one important factor that hinders smooth functioning of an administrative machine is the multiplicity of agencies and functional overlaps.
Any major development of infrastructure or services concerns various agencies and levels in a civic set up. The sub categories associated are many involving complex functions. Therefore, the need arises to avoid such multiplicity of agencies to achieve efficiency in managing any work.

The unfortunate Prabhadevi railway station stampede some years ago had sent alarm signals and many decisions were announced by the government to bring into effect the following :

– Clear demarcation of jurisdiction and functions for each agency

– Improved coordination among agencies

– Guidelines for the action to be taken during any emergency situation

– Grievance redressal mechanism to ensure greater public participation in getting information about lapses in infrastructure development.

One remembers an old proverb : Prevention is better than cure. The present situation has offered such an opportunity to the government. Steps to consider this issue should be taken as soon as the Lok Sabha elections are over. The social cost due to the official negligence is much greater than the financial damage. Hence, improving the governance to achieve a better quality of life needs to be expedited.

This is the stark message of the Ghatkopar hoarding tragedy. Paying attention to it will avert any future disasters.