Mumbai unaffected in Bharat bandh over fuel price hike and FDI retail

The nationwide bharat bandh declared today by BJP-led NDA and other oppositon parties against the reform measures announced by the government last week.

According to NDTV: The protests against the reforms began early today morning in some of the areas like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Workers belonging to BJP's Yuva Morcha blocked three trains at Patna railway station and in Darbhanga, CPI(ML) workers stopped the Ganga Sagar Express. In Allahabad, Samajwadi Party workers staged demonstrations on railway tracks. There are also reports of trains being stopped in Bhubaneswar in Odisha. In the national capital, public transport is running smoothly so far. Metro trains are also on time.

Karnataka meanwhile has seen partial effect of the bandh call so far. While buses are off the road, autos are plying.  Trains are also running on time. There have been no protests so far.

Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra is likely to be unaffected by the bandh call due to Ganesh Chaturthi festivities. Both the MNS and the Shiv Sena and even the BJP have said that they will not enforce the nationwide strike in the state because of the ongoing festival. While MNS supports FDI in retail, BJP and Shiv Sena are opposed to it. So public transport, malls, super markets all other services are likely to function normally. Schools and colleges also will stay open.

Urban Transport: Metro Rail

The pace of urbanisation in India has risen tremendously during the last thee decades, resulting in development of not only four metros but emergence of new metro cities. It is projected that India’s urban population would grow to about 473 million in 2021 and 820 million by 2051, as against only 285 million in 2001 and 320 million in 2010.  However, most of the metro cities have failed to create the much needed infrastructure to provide the basic amenities to the rising population. One of the areas where the gap between demand and supply has increased sizably is the urban transport infrastructure.

The lack of adequate public transport system has resulted in growth of private motor vehicles. In some of the metro cities the growth of private vehicles was almost four times faster than the growth of population. To make the matter worse, the city governing bodies have failed to expand the road space because of non-availability of land and funds constraint. Further, the increased number of private vehicles has given rise to air pollution and increased road accidents.

With demand for urban transport expected to double by 2030, the urban planners have come up with Mass Rapid Transportation Systems (MRTS) as one of the alternate modes of transportation. The success of MRTS in Kolkata and Delhi has made town planners of other major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Jaipur, Pune, Kochi, etc to take up such projects.

In this special feature, ProjectsToday takes a look at the ongoing MRTS projects in various cities of India.

Mass Rapid Transit System: Major Cities
City	Project	Cost (Rs Crore)
Delhi	Delhi Metro Rail - Phase III	35,000
Bangalore	Bangalore Metro Rail - Phase I	11,609
Hyderabad	Hyderabad Elevated MRTS	16,375
Chennai	Chennai Metro Rail	14,600
Ahmedabad	Ahmedabad - Gandhinagar Metro Rail	12,000
Mumbai	Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd Corridor -  Phase I	12,000
Jaipur	Jaipur Metro Rail	9,100
Pune	Pune Metro Rail	8,000
Nagpur	Nagpur Metro Rail	8,000
Kolkata	East West Metro Rail	4,874