No To Petrol/Diesel Vehicles In Mumbai Soon?

There’s no other way to say it, Mumbai’s air quality has deteriorated severely. It is the worst it has ever been. That’s also due to the constant infrastructure development in and around the island city. To combat it and possibly bring it under control, the Maharashtra government is seeking dramatic measures, one of which is to perhaps phase out entry for petrol and diesel vehicles into Mumbai Metropolitan Region, only allowing CNG and EVs to roam the streets.

A seven-member panel has been formed to take up this task to provide its recommendations to the government in three months’ time. This committee will be led by retired IAS officer Sudhir Kumar Shrivastava, and will comprise of members from traffic police, Mahanagar Gas Limited, Mahavitaran, and SIAM.

The transport data states that there are nearly 1.20 crore vehicles registered in the MMR region, 50 lakh of which are registered in the main Mumbai city region. Getting all of these vehicles that use petrol or diesel off Mumbai’s streets will be next to impossible. These automobiles are the second-highest cause of air pollution in the city and the main contributor to blocked up roads.

While we do agree that the situation needs serious attention and some form of transport solution is going to be key, perhaps addressing the infrastructural shortcomings first would have some merit. The Mumbai metro construction has been wreaking havoc on the city for over a decade and it doesn’t seem like the construction will ever end.

The sorry state of Mumbai’s roads are another reason why the traffic gets choked up in prominent places in the city. Instead of the flyovers that are supposed to ease traffic, only chaos reigns. And the special projects like the Atal Setu and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, designed to cut time for travellers, aren’t accessible to two- and three-wheelers.

Hence, it would be great if Mumbai took a pause on starting anything new, finishing the projects on hand and then trying to find a logical and feasible solution to the traffic and air quality problems. Else the financial capital of the country will just end up choking the life out of its citizens, if it isn’t doing that already.