Mid-Day Specials | How Mumbai's daily commute is quietly impacting your health

Updated On: 27 August, 2024 09:26 PM IST | Mumbai | Nascimento Pinto

As Mumbai boasts of the Atal Setu, Coastal Road, Bandra-Worli Sea Link and all other future metro construction and roadway projects, the city is crumbling in traffic. As people head to work, they spend more time getting to work than those travelling by train. It begs the question, is all this development worth it, at the cost of one’s health?

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Mumbaikar Anushna Attavar travels from Lalbaug to her office in Andheri East daily, but it has never been smooth. While other Mumbaikars travel by the well-connected local train, she is busy getting road transport to her destination, which is supposed to be the better option. She expresses, "Kaali-peeli taxis don`t even stop to ask where you`re headed, and if they ask - eventually they will respond with ‘Bohot trafficwala road hai’ and will not go. Even the roads are plagued with heavy traffic and unnecessary potholes that make it difficult to travel by road in Mumbai.” The city-based publicist’s journey to the office should not take more than 40-45 minutes a day, but how much time does she spend on the road? Easily anywhere between 1 hour to 90 minutes, which is almost double the time. “There are significant bottlenecks near Santacruz and Dadar, but it seems like no one notices,” she adds.

Attavar is one of many Mumbaikars who travel by road daily. However, the journey is never pleasant, and neither is it fast. With each passing year, travelling in Mumbai by road is becoming difficult, frustrating and tiring. The city boasts of several mega projects over the years including the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, Coastal Road and most recently Atal Setu apart from the many metro construction projects that have not only hampered traffic but also damaged pre-existing roads that were once better than they are today. It is not only the traffic but also the effect of it that leads to short and long-term issues on one’s health, according to doctors. In fact, the 25-year-old says she has also got sick due to all this. “I have suffered from migraines due to being stuck in traffic with constant air conditioning, noise pollution and headlights that only make it worse.” So, are all the infrastructure projects worth it?

Mumbaikars and their travel woes
It only turns from bad to worse because of the many Mumbai metro projects that are underway leading to most of the city being under construction all the time. It would be hard to not see the city without the blue Metro construction boards in parts of the city. They are not only never-ending but also reduce the already bad roads into half leading to congestion and traffic through most routes for people travelling to work in Andheri, Bandra Kurla Complex and Lower Parel among other areas. When this writer put out a call on social media to speak to Mumbaikars with travel woes, he was met with an overwhelming response of people wanting to express their travel woes highlighting how frustrated people are in the city about their road travel.

Alisha Patel is another Mumbaikar like Attavar who has been relying on road travel over the years, but it just seems to be getting worse in her experience. She explains, “I live in Andheri West and my office is in Worli. I prefer taking a cab to work because it is more comfortable, and I don’t want to reach office sweaty and tired, but the traffic has gotten worse over the years. I have been travelling to office by road for 2.5 years now, and have seen both the time taken, as well as costs for cabs increase over the years.”

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