Pathetic State of Mumbai Roads

Another rainy day ... and another tryst with the Mumbai roads !

I get the distinct feeling that one of the two things have happened:
1) Vehicles plying in Mumbai City have wheels which "erode" the roads
2) Road Construction companies have started using infinitely substandard construction material

Any which way, its the road traveller who suffers .. . giving a new dimension to the Hindi word for journey ... "safar" ... which till now just bore its similarity to the pronounciation !

For those who speak the new variant mix of Hindi-English ... called Hinglish ... "I'm going on a safar" could very well mean that they'd be making a road trip in Mumbai city !

With technology improving and with manufactuers getting more innovative, one would have thought that something as basic as building roads for a coastal, tropical city would not be equal to rocket science ! But our guys have made it out to be just as difficult !

Well, actually, maybe not ... maybe they'd just like the roads to be reconstructed every other year or how else would they stay in business ... oops, how else would they ensure everyone else stays in business !

A win-win for all ... constant employment for road construction workers, stable demand for material ... and something easy for the Municipal Corporators to keep themselves busy with ... what with preparing Tender specifictaions and vendor shortlisting and reading reports and having interminable committee meetings ...

Here, in Mumbai, we often hear these politicians tout phrases about how they'd like Mumbai to be like Shanghai ... yeah sure, that's one plan that's going to get Shanghaied ... and the less said about the tout-ing, the better !

Well ... and that's how I feel ...