Minister Pratap Sarnaik Urges Agencies to Develop New Transport and Parking Solutions. The transport minister of Mumbai, Pratap Sarnaik, called a high-level meeting to discuss the development of transport and parking solutions. In this meeting, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) was told to improve public transportation and make it easy to travel for the residents. To learn more about the improvement and development of new public transport and better parking solutions, read the full article below.
Agencies to Develop New Transport and Parking Solutions
A high-level meeting was organised on Wednesday at the office of the Additional Chief Secretary of the Transport Department to discuss innovative transport options such as water taxis, ropeways, and pod taxis, as well as the implementation of these transport options in the future. Moreover, the transport minister also gave a hint about the implementation of bike taxis in the near future.
This meeting was attended by officials from the Urban Development Department, Maritime Board, Transport Commissioner’s Office, and State Transport Corporation.
Water Taxis in Mumbai
The authorities are planning to expand on other modes of transportation in MMR, like water taxis. The idea of having water transportation in Mumbai has been discussed in previous meetings also, but never came to any conclusion. In the previous attempt to connect Navi Mumbai to Nariman Point with catamarans, the developers failed badly.
Sarnaik said, “The city and its metropolitan region, right up to Alibag and Vihar, is surrounded by water. There is enough scope for this mode of transportation and not just depend on trains and metro rails. I have asked the urban development department to ask the MMRDA to conduct a deep study and submit a project report with complete details for water taxis. I do not know what happened in the past and why it did not work. My idea is to develop a holistic water transport network for the city.”
Ropeways in Mumbai
The state government has received the approval for the introduction of ropeways in The MMR from Union Minister Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari. The main aim of ropeways is to offer an extra mode of transport in congested areas and hilly terrains. This project is also a comeback and was previously called the Parvatmala Project, for which a complete survey will be announced shortly.
In 2019, MMDRA announced plans to build two ropeways. One of the 3.6 km long Charkop-Marve corridors, at a cost of ₹383 crore, and a 7.2 km long Mahavir Nagar-Gorai (Pagoda) corridor, costing ₹575 crore. The project never took off even after inviting tenders. But the state government is still planning to look for the areas where ropeways can be built without any difficulties even after the failure. The areas where there are residential buildings, and they might also undergo redevelopment and be replaced by high-rises, are skipped in the process of choosing the perfect areas to build ropeways.
Parking Problem In Mumbai
The parking problems have arisen due to the last-mile connectivity. People taking trains also face this issue about where they can park their vehicles. The times have changed when people used to take autos and buses after their train journey. Now, everyone has a private vehicle. But the space is limited only. So the idea of building huge underground parking lots near railway and metro stations has been proposed in the meeting. The parking lots will be made with full facilities of all required things by people, including small petrol pumps. This idea is still in process and has not been officially approved.
Pod taxi Project
The transport minister, Sarnaik, stated that the pod taxi project has already begun. The project has been planned to launch an 8-km stretch between Bandra Kurla Complex and Kurla within the next two years. He confirmed that the project is deeply examined to stay away from the similar difficulties faced during the monorail system.
All We Know
The transport minister of Mumbai, Pratap Sarnaik, called a high-level meeting to discuss the development of transport and parking solutions. Water taxis, ropeways, and pod taxis are examples of innovative transportation options that were discussed in this meeting, along with their future implementation.