Since ages, Mumbai has been plagued with traffic chaos. Mumbai being a linear city and most of the offices confined either to South Mumbai (Nariman Point, Fort, Colaba) or Central Mumbai (BKC, Andheri SEEPZ), traffic literally flows in one direction. Cheaper housing available only in Northern suburbs adds to the traffic woes as majority of the residential community is now based at Kandivali and onwards.
Mumbai is also surrounded by water everywhere and is actually a 3-sided island. What I could never understand why this is never used to its advantage? I have stayed in London for some time where water is used as an effective and efficient transport medium and could never comprehend the reason of not using it in India as well?
Imagine someone who has to travel from Borivali (W) to Nariman Point. He first takes a local bus to the nearest railways station (Borivali) – journey time can be anything between 15-30 mins depending upon traffic. Then he takes a local train to Churchgate and then a cab from there to Nariman Point. Total journey time would be a min 2 hrs. Even if the person belongs to upper middle class and above and drives to work, he would still take anywhere between 2-2.5 hrs. On top, add the stress level due to traffic jams, overpacked local trains / buses and excessive noise and air pollution.
Vice versa, if a water transport is available, he just neads to reach the nearest jetty, take a catamaran or ferry service to Nariman Point (journey time can be anything between 45-60 mins).
A similar case can be built on Harbor line for people travelling between Vashi and Nariman Point.
But so far, this medium has never been explored. Interestingly, there are ferries available to take you to Alibaugh, Mandwa and Rewas which are 4 hrs by road but 1 hr by ferry.
I strongly feel that water transport should be explored as a medium to decongest the roads. This can be further sub-divided into two: First, normal ferries which can accommodate upto 100-150 passengers every 3-4 mins and priced low for daily local wage passengers. Add local stops at all key places like Versova, Bandra, Juhu, Dadar etc. The second would be to have stylish water boats which can accommodate 25-30 passengers and offer comfort for business travelers and tourists (price can be same as first classs train ticket). This will surely reduce the number of cars on the roads. Even if we make this sector private, it has huge potential.
